History
The school was originally in Rochester High Street, spanning the city wall. The building was demolished in the late 1960s and the site is now a car park next to a nightclub. It is said that the local authority did not know part of the old city wall with a small tower ran through the school buildings, and as a result no further development of the site was allowed. The school's playing fields and swimming pool were originally by the River Medway off Rochester Esplanade; they are now off Maidstone Road, Rochester, next to the area known as Priestfields (not to be confused with Gillingham FC's ground, Priestfield). An annexe (now known as P block) was built at the Maidstone Road site in the 1950s, housing all the first forms, and two classes each from the second and third years. In autumn 1968, the whole school moved to a new building the site. Initially this featured a main block, hall, sports hall, gymnasium, 25-metre indoor swimming pool and science block. The school's music block was expanded in 2005 to include a new teaching room and several new practice rooms.
In the 1990s a sixth-form centre was constructed and at the turn of the century a maths block was created upon the old staff car park. The sixth form centre houses a series of classrooms for the use of pupils throughout the school. There are still two sets of temporary classrooms. The school also has extensive sports facilities, including an artificial turf pitch for hockey, two cricket pitches, tennis courts, football and rugby pitches as well as the swimming pool, gym, and sports hall.
A mathematics centre opened in 2002, in line with the Math's new status as a specialist school in maths and computing. In 2005 the school controversially scrapped its A-level computing course, this despite having received specialist funding to teach the subject. After a 6 year gap A-level computing was reinstated as an 11 pupil pilot subject in 2011, due to the positive results of the pilot group the option to take computing at A-level and GCSE was reintroduced for 2013.
In the 1990s, girls were admitted to the school for the first time, but only to pursue sixth-form education. The school was granted an "outstanding" status in its Ofsted report in 2006 and then again in 2008, and was given specialist status for Humanities, focused on History and Geography.
The school is a National Support School and Dr Holden, the Executive Principal, a National Leader of Education. The school was also one of the first 100 schools in the country to have been designated a National Teaching School. The school became an Academy in April 2011.
Former pupils are known as Old Williamsonians and there is a thriving 'Old Williamsonian' Club.
Founder's Day is held on the first Saturday of July: pupils attend Rochester Cathedral for a morning service and in the afternoon return to the school for sports and other activities. The next Monday is a school holiday.
In 2012 a new Art and Design Technology block was opened. Following a competition at the school, it was named the 'Da Vinci Block' and includes up to date facilities for the delivery of this part of the curriculum. For the first time, Food Technology is now part of the technology curriculum. The English department has since been rehoused in the old Art & Technology classrooms opposite the hall.
Read more about this topic: Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School
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