John Mason School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Mason School, or JMS, is a state secondary school in the town of Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in the United Kingdom. Established as an old grammar school in 1960, the school has now grown considerably, with, as of 2006, approximately 1000 pupils.
John Mason is one in a four-way partnership of Abingdon schools known as the Consortium. Its other members are Larkmead School, Fitzharrys School and Abingdon and Witney College. Sixth forms are shared between all the members, and plans for the future are discussed between the head teachers of all three schools.
The three schools in the Consortium were recently granted "specialist school status". John Mason now specialises in the visual arts. This means it will now receive greater funding from the government to provide for specialist equipment. The school will continue to function as normal in all other departments, but with increased funding for visual learning equipment, such as data projectors.
The school logo is that of a double-headed lion (although many people mistakenly believe it to be a griffin) of the same origin as the Abingdon School logo, and has a motto of, "High Standards, Happy School, Committed Service, Creative Spirit" (formerly "High Standards, Happy School, Honourable Service"). The school colours are green and orange. The school has three houses, Ock, Stert, and Thames, of the colours green, red and blue respectively. There was a fourth house, Isis, but this was dissolved as of 1993.
The school was named after the sixteenth century intellectual, diplomat and spy Sir John Mason, whose portrait can be found hanging in the school hall.
Famous alumni include the Premiership footballer Matthew Taylor and folk musician John Spiers.
