The school was named after Dame Mary Ramsey, a 16th-century local educational philanthropist.

The 2006 Ofsted report averaged the college at a satisfactory grade.

In 2013, the school was once again graded as "good" in most areas and "outstanding" for leadership and management.

[3] In 2023 the school was found to have four potentially structurally unsound classrooms due to the use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete as a building material.

This Essex school or sixth form college related article is a stub.