Dick Sheppard School

Coordinates: 51°27′01″N 0°06′44″W / 51.4502°N 0.1122°W / 51.4502; -0.1122
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Dick Sheppard School
Address
Map

,
London

England
Coordinates51°27′01″N 0°06′44″W / 51.4502°N 0.1122°W / 51.4502; -0.1122
Information
TypeSecondary Comprehensive
Established1955
Closed1994
GenderGirls then Mixed
Age11 to 18

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

St Martin-In-The-Fields High School for Girls. In the late 1970s it absorbed the remaining male pupils of nearby Strand School
and continued as a co-educational school until its closure in 1994.

History

The school was established by the

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 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, at the time the Secretary of State for Education, 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.[2] Noting the objections of those who were particularly concerned to retain a local comprehensive school for girls, Thatcher stated in the House of Commons that to make the school a co-educational establishment would be to go against those wishes.[2] 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.

Cherry Groce produced the headline in The Daily Telegraph: Children 'ran wild in NUT walk-out',[7] an occasion when discipline was described by Inner London Education Authority member Anne Sofer as "completely out of hand".[8] The incident also featured in a House of Lords debate on 5 February 1986 by Lord Ritchie of Dundee (Hansard cc 1175).[9]

By 1987 The Observer described the school as a "ray of hope...now making strenuous efforts to improve itself, not without success",[10] while The London Evening Standard in a 'fact file' on the area listed the school as "one of the best".[11]

The school continued as such until it was itself closed down in 1994.

Lambeth Council in 1997 for £10 million to make way for luxury housing.[12]

Head Teachers

  • Mrs Margaret Solan
  • Miss Jessie Edwards
  • Mrs Margaret Broadley
  • MBE
    (1983–87 – Deputy Head from 1981)
  • Norma Gibbes (1987–1989 – Deputy from 1985)
  • QGM
  • Doreen Hall (1991-closure)

Alumni

  • Paulette Randall, actor and producer.
  • Tim Roth, 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

  1. ^ London County Council, (1962), Secondary Schools in Bermondsey, Lambeth and Southwark, Division 8
  2. ^ a b House of Commons Speech by Margaret Thatcher (Secondary Education (Opposition motion)), (1 February 1973), (Hansard HC [849/1639-68])
  3. ^ YouTube – Princess Diana in South London
  4. ^ West Indian World, 12 October 1983; 'Race tension as governors drop black chairman' in Times Educational Supplement, 14 October 1983
  5. ^ 5 September 1984, pg 13
  6. ^ Burgers nibble away at sport, The Daily Telegraph, 27 November 1986; Lone Labour council opposes competitive sport, The Times, 18 November 1989
  7. ^ The Daily Telegraph, 11 December 1985, pg 2
  8. ^ Labour bars ILEA far-Left inquiry, London Standard, 11 December 1985
  9. ^ Education: Avoidance of Politicisation (Hansard, 5 February 1986)
  10. ^ 9 August 1987
  11. ^ 6 May 1987, pg 24
  12. ^ a b Guardian Unlimited, Filling The Gap, Friday April 15, 2005