Dick Sheppard School
| Established | 1955 |
|---|---|
| Closed | 1994 |
| Type | Secondary Comprehensive |
| Location |
Tulse Hill Lambeth London England Coordinates: 51°27′01″N 0°06′44″W / 51.4502°N 0.1122°W |
| Gender | Girls then Mixed |
| Ages | 11–18 |
Dick Sheppard School was a large school, originally for girls, at Tulse Hill in the London Borough of Lambeth. It was founded as the sister establishment to Tulse Hill School 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 and continued as a co-educational school until its closure in 1994.
The school was established by the London County Council in 1955. It was named after the Anglican clergyman, Dick Sheppard, noted for turning St Martin-in-the-Fields 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. 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. 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.
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