History

William Morris Sixth Form (WMSF) is named after William Morris, the textile designer, artist, writer, and libertarian socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and British Arts and Crafts Movement, who in later life lived by the river in Hammersmith.

William Morris Sixth Form, was founded in 1994, by Liz Walton OBE, a teacher and Socialist. Liz held William Morris in high esteem and took the opportunity to establish a sixth form as there was no other post-16 provision in the borough at that time, and WMSF was the country’s first 16-19 school. At that time, there was no such thing as a sixth form school, but this did not stop Liz from opening the doors to WMSF. The school was officially opened in 1994, by Estelle Morris, then Secretary of State for Education.

Liz Walton founded a sixth form, which was not only inclusive, but also had a broad curriculum: Languages, Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Social Sciences, Humanities, Business, ICT, Media and of course, the core subjects. Inclusion was very important to Liz, so she also established an excellent learning support department, which allowed students with SEND to attend a mainstream educational setting, in many instances, for the first time.

Today William Morris Sixth Form provides sixth form education to students from over 150 schools across London, and offers students a range of over 40 courses as programmes of study, with a variety of pathways. Courses include A Levels, GCSEs, IGCSEs, BTECs, foundation learning and this year (2023) we are introducing our first T Level – in Finance!