In 1928 the Laindon High Road County Senior School opened. In the late 1980s it was renamed The Laindon School In 1963 the Nicholas School opened, later to become Nicholas Comprehensive in September 1968.[4][5]
In 1990 Nicholas became the first secondary in Basildon to be honoured with the Schools Curriculum Award and in 1993 the first to be inspected by Ofsted. Due to a stagnating student population in both schools the Essex County Council decided to amalgamate both schools and they closed in July 1998. After closure Laindon's campus hosted the new James Hornsby High School while the Nicholas campus was renovated. The James Hornsby school reopened on the Nicholas campus in September 2000 and the Laindon campus closed for the last time.[6][5][4]
The school has two main buildings. The main three-storey building accommodates the English and media, science, mathematics and IT departments. The science laboratories had major refurbishment in 2010. The building also has a series of one-storey blocks which house the language, visual arts, PE, health and social care, music and dance departments. The reception, cafeteria, library and staff offices are also located in the main building.
The second building is the "Humanities Block". This also has a main three-storey block which accommodates the history, geography, RE, classical civilisations. The building also has another block within containing two IT rooms, drama, resistant materials, food technology, graphic design and public services departments. The "servery" is also located in this block as an alternative food vendor to the cafeteria.
A third building has been added to the campus, opened in October 2010.
The school has a sports hall, gymnasium, two performing arts studios, large assembly hall and a swimming pool. In July 2010, the sports hall underwent work to make a new corridor and extension which was completed in December 2010. The new extension has been designed to meet Disability Discrimination Act 2005 guidelines. The extension has two floors, the top floor acting as a further class room and observation room into the sports hall. On the lower floor there is a disabled toilet and another observation room for the swimming pool that can be hired out.
The uniform at James Hornsby was changed in September 2012 from blue blazers with yellow and blue ties to black blazers with the school's new logo and new school ties with one of four different colours (for each of the colleges) with black trousers and a white shirt.
Pupils in years 7 and 8 also study modern languages, art, music, drama, food technology, graphic design, history and geography. These are offered as options in years 9, 10 and 11, along with public services, health and social care, photography and travel and tourism.
