The Charter School
| Established | 2000 |
|---|---|
| Type | Academy |
| Headteacher | Christian Hicks |
| Location |
Red Post Hill London SE24 9JH  EnglandCoordinates: 51°27′23″N 0°05′21″W / 51.45641°N 0.08927°W |
| DfE number | 210/4318 |
| DfE URN | 131812 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | 1006 |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Website |
www |
The Charter School is a coeducational secondary school with academy status in Dulwich, within the London Borough of Southwark, south London, England. It opened in September 2000 and occupies a site on Red Post Hill next to North Dulwich railway station and nearby Herne Hill.
The site was formerly inhabited by Dulwich High School for Boys and before that William Penn Secondary School. The old buildings underwent major renovation before opening, modernising them to construct a school for the new millennium. Additions, notably the sports hall and ball courts were also made.
The Charter School was born out of a need of the local community for the government to provide a good state secondary school in the Dulwich area, due in part to the high concentration of private schools in the area (James Allen's Girls' School, or JAGS; Alleyns; and Dulwich College).. The name of the school was taken from the "Parents Charter" introduced by the Government in 1991 to extend parental choice and raise standards.
The school was then opened in September 2000 by the first headteacher of the school, Pam Bowmaker OBE, who welcomed the first 180 students to join the school in Year 7.
She retired as a headteacher in July 2005 when the school had received its first set of GCSE results, and was succeeded by Chris Bowler in September 2005 (who then led the school to an Outstanding grading in its 2007 Ofsted inspection), before being replaced by former Deputy Headteacher, David Sheppard in September 2008 and him being replaced by the next headteacher from 2014, Christian Hicks.A. It received its second Outstanding Ofsted award in 2009.
A new football pitch has been built on the former sports hall site next to the new building. The school has a football team and basketball team. The school has just over 1,006 pupils on its roll.
On 9 March 2015, it was announced by the Department for Education that The Charter School Education Trust (the Academy Trust that runs The Charter School) was to enter pre-opening phase for a new "The Charter School East Dulwich" to be built on part of the site of the current Dulwich hospital.[1] The Free School application was led by Manny Amadi MVO, vice-chair of Governors and one of the parents who founded the original The Charter School more than 15 years perviously.