Sedgehill Academy, previously Sedgehill School, is a

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

and

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

located in

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England. It is part of

United Learning United Learning is a group of state-funded schools and fee-paying independent schools operating in England. United Learning is the trading name for United Church Schools Trust (UCST) and United Learning Trust (ULT). It is one of the largest 10 c ...

History

The school opened in 1957 as a flagship campus for the new

comprehensive education Comprehensive may refer to: * Comprehensive layout, the page layout of a proposed design as initially presented by the designer to a client. *Comprehensive school, a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement ...

strategy, intended to replace the existing

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...

, central and

secondary modern A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Schools of this type continue in Northern Ireland, where they are usuall ...

schools. Much of the interior and fittings were avant garde and included specially designed 'Sedgehill furniture' that was later adopted by other schools run by the

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

education department. In 2008, the School had over 1,800 pupils with over half from ethnic minorities. The school was re-built in 15 months (while the old school was still open) by the London Borough of Lewisham. The project cost £6.3m and was carried out by

Costain Costain is a surname of English, Scottish and Manx origin. When originating in Scotland and northern Ireland the surname is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic ''Mac Austain'', meaning "son of ''Austin''". The English surname is a reduced form of '' ...

. The students moved into the new building in January 2009. Ofsted visited the school in October 2013 and found it was well managed and governed but 'required improvement'. It observed that the intake was well below the national average ability, and the proportion of pupils eligible for the

pupil premium The pupil premium is a grant given by the government to schools in England to decrease the attainment gap for the most disadvantaged children, whether by income or by family upheaval. For each pupil who is eligible for free school meals, or has clai ...

, was well above average.The premium is given for looked-after children,those on free school meals and those with a parent in the armed forces. In spite of the previous interventions that Ofsted praised, the outcome metric of 5 A to C at GCSE, including maths and English, remains at 52%. Most teachers use assessment to effectively plan and deliver lessons which are appropriate for their students. However, others didn't and too often all abilities given the same work to complete, which failed to challenge or stretch the most able students. The pace of learning varied. Some students failed make the progress that they were capable of. Teachers use a range of different strategies to help students to understand and broaden their knowledge and skills. Often students were not given enough time to think through and explore solutions for themselves, or given sufficient responsibility to independently drive their learning forwards. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a
Open Government Licence v3.0
© Crown copyright. Interventions were made by Lewisham Council and the parents were concerned whether these were adequate to improve pupils' results, the council was divided but support was offered from Bethnal Green Academy and

Hayes School Hayes School is a mixed secondary school with academy status located in the suburb of Hayes within the London Borough of Bromley. The school has approximately 1800 students, of whom 500 are in the sixth form. In 2016 Ofsted reported:

In accordance with the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

The

academy trust became a 'school improvement partner', to address the longstanding criticism from

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...

.Ofsted full inspection May 2018
/ref> The school then became a sister school to Lambeth Academy. This was to be for a three-year period and the school was governed by an interim executive body. The partnership was successful from the interim board's and Ofsted's point of view. After negotiation about the PFI debt, in September 2020 the school formally converted to academy status sponsored by United Learning.

Notable incidents

In 1971 the joint head of science at the school, Donnahadh O'Shea, was jailed for 12 months for possessing explosives after an explosion on a train injured a woman. He was convicted of possessing 2 lb. of

nitrocellulose Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...

powder and 3,454 priming caps. An assistant headteacher, Patrick Stack, was found hanged in an outbuilding in the school grounds in 2001. He had been suffering from depression. He had been awarded the

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

for his outstanding contribution to education in the Queen's birthday honours for 2000.

Notable former pupils

Django Bates Django Bates (born Leon Bates, 2 October 1960) is a British jazz musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist, band leader and educator. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. Bates has been described as "one of the most talented musici ...

, composer, multi-instrumentalist, band leader and educator *

Nicholas Bennett Cllr Nicholas Jerome Bennett JP (born 7 May 1949) is a British politician and a former Mayor of the London Borough of Bromley. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1987 to 1992 representing the const ...

, politician * Jim Dowd, politician * Aminata Kabba, singer and songwriter *

Chris Kibble Chris Kibble (born 24 July 1963) is a British pianist and keyboard player. He started with the jazz fusion band Kafo in 1985, then joined acid jazz band Snowboy. Kibble attended Sedgehill Secondary School in southeast London, England. He has ...

, pianist and keyboard player *

Alan Lancaster Alan Charles Lancaster (7 February 1949 – 26 September 2021) was an English musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the rock band Status Quo, playing with the band from 1967 to 1985, with brief reunions in 2013 and 2014. As ...

, co-founder, bassist and vocalist in

Status Quo is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, political, religious or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the current state of social structure and/or values. W ...

* Anne Mensah, broadcasting executive *

Moses Odubajo Moses Adeshina Ayoola Junior Odubajo (born 28 July 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a right winger or a right back for Greek Super League club Aris. He is a product of the Leyton Orient youth system and represented Englan ...

, professional footballer *

Francis Rossi Francis Dominic Nicholas Michael Rossi, (born 29 May 1949) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He is the co-founder, lead singer, lead guitarist and the sole continuous member of the rock band Status Quo. Early life Rossi was born o ...

, co-founder, lead guitarist and vocalist in Status Quo
*

Moses Boyd Moses Boyd (born 30 April 1991) is a British jazz drummer, composer, record producer, bandleader and radio host. His debut solo studio album ''Dark Matter'' (2020) was nominated for the 2020 Mercury Prize. In 2014, Boyd and saxophonist Binke ...

, British jazz drummer, composer, producer

References

External links

* {{authority control Secondary schools in the London Borough of Lewisham Academies in the London Borough of Lewisham Educational institutions established in 1957 1957 establishments in England United Learning schools