Former Ryhope Public Elementary School pupil Ralph Williams was appointed as headmaster, welcoming a first intake of 74 boys and 81 girls.
Built on a four-acre site on the outskirts of Ryhope, the new school offered "every convenience, an excellent playing field and electricity throughout."
Among these was Norman Pigg, the school's first sports champion, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, the Military Cross with two bars and three mentions in Dispatches.
Pigg lead a fund-raising campaign to commemorate the fallen after the war, with an organ and plaque being erected in the school hall in 1924.
It became one of the first schools in the country to form an Air Training Corps unit, and hundreds of Old Ryhopeans fought in the conflict.