Wymondham College

Wymondham College
Wymondham College main entrance in the evening
Address
Golf Links Road Morley , Norfolk , NR18 9SZ England
Information
Type	Foundation school
Motto	Floreat Sapientia (Let Wisdom Flourish)
Established	1951
Founder	Lincoln Ralphs
Local authority	Norfolk
Specialist	Technology, Language
Department for Education URN	121208 Tables
Ofsted	Reports
Principal	Mr Melvyn Roffe
Gender	Coeducational
Age	11 to 18
Enrollment	1116
Houses	New Hall, Fry Hall, Cavell Hall, Kett Hall, Lincoln Hall, Peel Hall
Publication	Wymondham College Magazine
Website	http://www.wymondhamcollege.co.uk

Wymondham College is a state boarding school, located in Norfolk, England, which was the largest in Europe when it opened in 1951.

Admissions

It is a specialist Technology College (Mathematics, Science, ICT & DT) and Modern Foreign Languages college. The headteacher is the Vice-Chairman of the Boarding Schools Association (BSA). It is situated on Golf Links Road on its own campus site near the junction with the A11 and B1172. It is next to Morley Hall, and lies in the civil parish of Morley.

History

Former Military Hospital

The School is built on the site of the World War II USAAF 231st Station Hospital, and when the school first opened in 1951 the hospital's forty Nissen huts were used as classrooms and dormitories. It was established by Lincoln Ralphs, the chief education officer of Norfolk Education Committee. Brick-built accommodation began to appear in the late 1950s but Nissen huts remained in use, principally for classrooms and storage, through to end of the 1990s. The only Nissen hut now remaining is the College chapel. A memorial garden has been created on the site of the former mortuary (which for many years was used as the technical drawing classroom).

Grammar schools

In 1951 there were two separate schools, Grammar and Technical, each with separate Heads. They merged in the mid-1950s after an uneasy co-existence. The school was a co-educational boarding grammar school. It was intended for academically-gifted children in remote rural areas with no grammar schools in their local area that they could attend, as well as those with parents abroad or who regularly moved around the country. It gave priority, where possible, to children from families where the parents had separated, thus possibly under financial hardship. Admissions were by examination and headmasters' reports.

In January 1958, a hoard of 881 Anglo Saxon (Edward the Elder) coins were found at the school when a drain was being dug.

In the mid-1970s, the school had 700 boarders and 750 day pupils (from the former county grammar school). By 1978 this was 1,000 day pupils as well as the 700 boarders. Mrs Thatcher visited the school in the early 1970s.

The school remained exclusively 'boarding' until the early 1970s, when it was merged with the County Grammar School, which had been hosted at Wymondham on a 'temporary' basis for the best part of ten years.

The school in the 1970s had been in a state of disrepair with an out-dated water supply and drainage system, and had an unreliable heating system (built by the USAF in 1944) in the winter and lack of insulation. Despite these problems it was still producing outstanding academic results. It was offered £250,000 in 1978 by the Labour government to address the situation, on condition that the school became a comprehensive school. The money never appeared, partly because soon after Labour lost the 1979 general election.

Comprehensive

Grammar school status was lost with the advent of comprehensive education. In the early 1990s it became a grant maintained school.

The facilities are used for external summer schools. In August 1998, seven children from London on a course run by a special needs charity were taken to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital after being stung by a swarm of non-native Median wasps. On 9 March 1990, the Duke of Edinburgh visited the school.

In 2010 the school became and academy as part of the Academies Act 2010.

Premises

Wymondham College's library

The accommodation blocks (in order of construction) are:

• Peel Hall: after Alderman Sam Peel - former Chairman of Norfolk Education Committee.
• Lincoln Hall: after Abraham Lincoln, in honour of the servicemen who were hospitalised there before it became a school. Opened by US Secretary Of State Dean Acheson.
• Fry Hall: after Elizabeth Fry.
• Kett Hall: after Robert Kett.
• Cavell Hall: after Edith Cavell.
• New Hall: last of the modern Houses to be built.
• Lincoln Ralphs Sixth Form Centre; After Sir Lincoln Ralphs, former Chief Education Officer for Norfolk and the founding father of the College.

The grouping of Houses into Halls varied over time, as can be seen from here.

A recent major development includes a football AstroTurf pitch with floodlights, nine new classrooms, two new science laboratories (linking the old part of the science block with the newer part) and infill to Peel boarding house roof for additional dormitories. A new dining room extension includes the admin block and new staff room. Peel Hall has increased capacity with departure of the staffroom and admin to the new building.

Another recent major development is a new International Centre which was built to replace the old Language Block which was a Morgue in World War Two. The old Language block is then due to become the new administration centre. The International centre will house Modern Foreign Languages Block and the UK office of the Model European Parliament. It was completed in June 2011.

List of Teaching Blocks

Wymondham College consists of a number of "blocks" for teaching purposes. These are:

• Technology Block
• Humanities Block
• International Centre (Modern Foreign Languages)
• Sports Block
• Student Services Centre (Formally the old Languages Block)
• Music Block
• Library
• Mathematics/Science Block
• Tom Eaton Centre

House system

A House system was first established in 1953, with house names North, South, East and West. As the College expanded and brick-built accommodation came into use in the early 1960s, the system was revised and the Houses were given names of Cathedral towns and cities:

• Boys: York, Gloucester, Canterbury, Norwich, Durham, Salisbury
• Girls: Wells, Westminster, Worcester, Winchester (with Wakefield and Washington added later)

When mixed Houses were introduced in the early 1970s, the cathedral House names were scrapped and the Houses adopted the names of the Halls themselves. Lincoln and Peel Halls were converted to Sixth Form boarding houses in 1978, Peel Hall being further converted into a boarding house for Year Sevens in 1995.

The house system is now as follows:

• Year Seven: Peel
• Years Eight to Eleven: Fry, Cavell, Kett, Or New
• Years Twelve to Thirteen: Lincoln

As of the 2010-2011 academic year, Peel started to retain some year 7 students in order to become a 'main school house'. Under the new system, the houses appear so:

• Years Eight to Eleven: Cavell, Kett, Fry, New or Peel
• Years Twelve to Thirteen: Lincoln

Notable former pupils

See also: Category:People educated at Wymondham College

Early morning sunlight over fields

• Stephen Byers, Labour MP for North Tyneside since 1992, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, and Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions in the Cabinet
• Colin Self, artist (1952-9)
• Prof Morris Gosling, Professor of Animal Behaviour from 1998-2008 at Newcastle University, and Director from 1993-9 of the Institute of Zoology (1954-61)
• Trudy Stevenson, Zimbabwe Ambassador to Senegal (1955-62)
• Peter Rogers, Chief Executive since 2003 of Babcock International Group (1959-66)
• Patsy Calton Lib Dem MP from 2001-5 (until her death) for Cheadle (1960-7)
• Philip Webster, Political Editor since 1993 of The Times (1960-7)
• Will Weston MVO, Director from 1980-93 of the West Yorkshire Playhouse, and Chief Executive from 2000-5 of the Royal Parks Agency (1960-7)
• Mark Brayne, BBC foreign correspondent and psychotherapist
• Robert Barnett OBE, Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1994-5 (1965-72)
• Nicholas Crane, explorer and writer (1965-72)
• Norman Lamb, Lib Dem MP from 2001 for Norwich North (1969-76)
• Justin Edrich, cricketer (1972-7)
• Mike Gascoyne, Technical Director of Lotus F1 Racing (1974-81)
• Mark Strong, actor in Our Friends in the North, and narrator of Who Do You Think You Are (1974-81)
• Adam Rayner, actor in Mistresses (1998)

Wymondham Grammar School

• Sir Frederick William Wilson, Liberal MP from 1895-1906 for Mid Norfolk (1855-62)

References

• Guardian 7 March 1978, page 13
• Guardian 27 July 1982, page 11

External links

• Official site
• Wymondham College Association (alumni)
• My Wymondham College Remembered
• Wymondham College Trust
• Prominent ex-pupils
• History of the site
• EduBase

News items

• Head makes the case for boarding schools in May 2009
• Teacher claimed discrimination in April 2005

Video clips

• Headteacher critical of 'easier' A-levels in August 2008