Dick Sheppard School was a large school, originally for girls, at

Tulse Hill Tulse Hill is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in South London that sits on Brockwell Park. It is approximately five miles from Charing Cross and is bordered by Brixton, Dulwich, Herne Hill, Streatham and West Norwood. History The a ...

in the London Borough of Lambeth. It was founded as the sister establishment to

Tulse Hill School Tulse Hill School was a large comprehensive school for boys in Upper Tulse Hill, in the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The school building had eight floors and served almost two thousand pupils. It opened in 1956 and closed in 1990. Notable ...

for boys and as the Comprehensive alternative to St Martin-In-The-Fields High School for Girls. In the late 1970s it absorbed the remaining male pupils of nearby

Strand School Strand School was a boys' grammar school in the Tulse Hill area of South London. It moved there in 1913 from its original location at King's College in London's Strand. Distinguished in its heyday for its contribution of young men to the civil ...

and continued as a co-educational school until its closure in 1994.

History

The school was established 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 ...

in 1955.London County Council, (1962), Secondary Schools in Bermondsey, Lambeth and Southwark, Division 8 It was named after the Anglican clergyman, Dick Sheppard, noted for turning

St Martin-in-the-Fields St Martin-in-the-Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. It is dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours. There has been a church on the site since at least the mediev ...

church into a social centre for the needy and destitute of central London. The name thus resonated with that of the local girls’ grammar school, St Martin-In-The-Fields High School. The school was at its inception well equipped and, like Tulse Hill School, was seen at the time as in the vanguard of comprehensive education. In 1972 the

Inner London Education Authority The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was an ad hoc local education authority for the City of London and the 12 Inner London boroughs from 1965 until its abolition in 1990. The authority was reconstituted as a directly elected body corp ...

proposed that Strand School be closed and its pupils transferred to Dick Sheppard. The Strand and Tulse Hill buildings, within close proximity of each other, were to form a single new comprehensive school.

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

, at the time the

Secretary of State for Education The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. The incumbent is a member of the C ...

, approved the closure but not the alterations to Tulse Hill, or the proposed extensions to Dick Sheppard. Parents of Strand pupils chose to contest the closure in the courts. As a result, an injunction forbidding closure was granted in May 1972; and a second application to the minister, in July 1972, was turned down in January of the following year.House of Commons Speech by Margaret Thatcher (Secondary Education (Opposition motion)), (1 February 1973), (Hansard HC 49/1639-68 Noting the objections of those who were particularly concerned to retain a local comprehensive school for girls, Thatcher stated in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

that to make the school a co-educational establishment would be to go against those wishes. By the late 1970s, however, Strand School was closed down. Its remnants were merged with Dick Sheppard, resulting in its becoming a co-educational school after all. In January 1982 there was a visit by The Prince and Princess of Wales. However the 1980s soon brought controversy. Janet Boateng, the first black chairman of governors within the ILEA, when ousted by her own Labour Party group in 1983, accused the school of "deep seated racism". In 1984 Dick Sheppard was one of four schools in the country featured in a ''Daily Express'' enquiry into "Britain's failing comprehensive schools", and was later in the vanguard of schools engaged in 'non-competitive sport' which attracted national varied interest. An unofficial walk-out by the staff in support of

Cherry Groce The Brixton riot of 1985 started on 28 September in London Borough of Lambeth, Lambeth in South London. It was the second major riot that the area had witnessed in the space of four years, 1981 Brixton riot, the last in 1981. It was sparked by t ...

produced the headline in ''The Daily Telegraph:'' Children 'ran wild in NUT walk-out', an occasion when discipline was described by Inner London Education Authority member Anne Sofer as "completely out of hand". The incident also featured in a House of Lords debate on 5 February 1986 by Lord Ritchie of Dundee (Hansard cc 1175). By 1987 ''The Observer'' described the school as a "ray of hope...now making strenuous efforts to improve itself, not without success", while The London Evening Standard in a 'fact file' on the area listed the school as "one of the best".6 May 1987, pg 24 The school continued as such until it was itself closed down in 1994.

Lambeth Council Lambeth London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Lambeth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, and one of the 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council meets at Lambeth Town Hall ...

was quoted as saying that Dick Sheppard was closed because "like many other schools in the area, it was failing." The supposed "near bankruptcy" of the local education authority has also been suggested.Guardian Unlimited, Filling The Gap, Friday April 15, 2005
/ref> The site was sold by

in 1997 for £10 million to make way for luxury housing.

Head Teachers

* Mrs Margaret Solan * Miss Jessie Edwards * Mrs Margaret Broadley * Paul S Farmer

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 ...

(1983–87 – Deputy Head from 1981) * Norma Gibbes (1987–1989 – Deputy from 1985) * Philip Lawrence QGM * Doreen Hall (1991-closure)

Alumni

* Paulette Randall, actor and producer. *

Tim Roth Timothy Simon Roth (born 14 May 1961) is an English actor and producer. He began acting on films and television series in the 1980s. He was among a group of prominent British actors of the era, the " Brit Pack". He made his television debut ...

, actor, who joined Dick Sheppard on the closure of Strand School (see above). * Nicola Armstrong Edgar, nee MacPherson, international diplomat and global chief executive. * Douglas Ankrah inventor of the p*rnstar martini and owner of the LAB bar in Soho in 1999, and Townhouse in Knightsbridge

References

{{Schools and colleges in Lambeth Defunct schools in the London Borough of Lambeth Educational institutions established in 1955 1955 establishments in England Educational institutions disestablished in 1994 1994 disestablishments in England