The school was founded in 1976, and named after Nobel Prize winning scientist Sir William Ramsay, who lived in Hazlemere until his death in 1916. Each year has six forms, though, during 2015/16 a 7th form was introduced due to the increase of students attending the school. Sir William Ramsay has three houses; Blake, Nash and Hepworth. Each house has its own colour with Blake being blue, Nash, red and Hepworth green. Each form is an individual house. In September 2012 Mr Mark Mayne took over from Miss Gaynor Comber as head teacher. He later left in July 2016 and was replaced by deputy headteacher Mr Chris Carter as Acting Headteacher. Mrs Christine McLintock then took over as headteacher from September 2017.