Canon Lee Specialist Arts College is a rapidly expanding 11-16 community school on the periphery of the City of York. The school is part of the highly regarded City of York Education Service and serves a mixed area consisting of private housing with some council housing.

The school is fortunate to be situated within 1 mile of the centre of the beautiful, historic City of York just off the A19. There are superb facilities. The school moved into new and refurbished buildings in September 2000 making it one of the best resourced schools in the region.

Specialist Arts Status

The school has an outstanding reputation for the arts and became a Specialist Arts College in September 2005 at the first attempt. Many students achieve great success in arts based subjects; this new initiative will allow us to ensure all areas of the school benefit from Specialist Status.

The school was opened in April 1941 and is now an 11-16 comprehensive with catchment from the City centre to the village of Skelton. In recent years large private housing estates have been established nearby and further building in the area is planned. From September 2000 the school has expanded following the closure of another local school and major building in the area. Some £5 million has been spent building a new teaching block and sports hall together with considerable refurbishment of existing buildings. Students at Canon Lee now benefit from some of the best buildings and resources available. A further £1m has been spent building a new Drama Centre and classrooms.

At the age of 16 approximately 80% of students transfer into post 16 education, mainly at York College. York College has an excellent reputation and students from York's eight 11 - 16 schools have an automatic right of entry to this college which is itself regularly over-subscribed.

Within the past few years the school has become increasingly popular; the current number on roll is 950 and is expected to rise to around 960 within the next few years.