The school is built on the site of the Second World WarUSAAF 231st Station Hospital, When the school first opened in 1951 the hospital's forty Nissen huts were used as dormitories. It was established by Lincoln Ralphs, the chief education officer of Norfolk County Council. Brick-built accommodation began to appear in the late 1950s, but Nissen huts remained in use,[1] 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 USAAF mortuary, which for many years was used as the school's technical drawing classroom.[2]
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 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. [3]
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. Margaret 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 nearly 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.
Academy
In 2010 the school became an academy as part of the Academies Act 2010. In 2016 the DfE recognised the college as being in the top 100 schools nationally on each of the main three measures, attainment, EBACC pass rate and Value added progress.[citation needed] The college was awarded world class school status in November 2015.[citation needed] In 2016 it was the founding school of a new multi-academy trust, the Sapientia Education Trust. The Trust grew in size to 20 schools by June 2024. The College won the ‘UK secondary school’ of the year award at the national teaching awards in November 2021. In October 2023 the College was graded as ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted in both education and boarding inspections, with all 9 inspected areas rated as ‘outstanding’ and, highly unusually, there were no areas identified for improvement.
Wymondham College Prep School
In 2019, the Sapientia Education Trust announced plans to unveil a new, purpose-built building to house a new preparatory school for children from reception to Year 6, led by Mr Simon Underhill, with a vision to fostering 'development for the whole child'.[4] Despite initial plans to purchase adjacent farmland for the Prep School, the College began construction on the former site of the Cavell Hall lawn, by Morgan Sindall.
The Prep School has had a varied reception among parents, students, alumni and the wider boarding school community, with some hailing the innovation and convenience it would provide for working parents, while others have questioned the ethics of sending a child away to boarding school at such a young age, although boarding only starts at Year 5. The new building opened in September 2021, together with Underwood Hall the new boarding house. Like Wymondham College, the school is heavily oversubscribed.
It was rated as ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted in all areas in its first inspection in June 2023. Ofsted praised Sapientia Education Trust’s vision for the school, the schools ambition and leadership, high standards and ‘exceptional’ personal development opportunities.
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 cities:
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 was 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 Seven to Eleven: Cavell, Kett, Fry, New or Peel
Years Twelve to Thirteen: Lincoln
Boarding school
Ofsted inspected the residential accommodation in 2023 and confirmed it remains 'outstanding'.[5]
Archaeology
In January 1958, a hoard of 881 Anglo Saxon (Edward the Elder) coins were found at the school when a drain was being dug.[citation needed]
