The Charter School

The Charter School is mixed, non selective comprehensive school located on the borders of Dulwich and Camberwell. It was founded 10 years ago after a campaign by local parents as there was no such state provision for secondary school age pupils. The main ethos of the school was to provide a school for all the community – that includes some of the leafiest parts of London as well as some of the most deprived housing estates in Europe.

The lack of such a school before 2000 had a devastating effect on the local community. Families with secondary aged pupils either moved out of the area or their children had to travel miles to a school. As an example, the 90 Year 6 pupils leaving the local primary school in 1999 went to 50 different secondary schools!.

Ten years on and the school is a beacon of success in the local community on a number of levels. It is classed as Outstanding by Ofsted, it is now a High Performing Specialist School amongst the top 20% in the country and it has two specialisms, science and business & enterprise.

Community cohesion is strong and getting stronger, pupils are proud to come to the school and they succeed. This year we recorded our best ever GCSE results with 56% of pupils getting at least 5 A* to C grades including English and Maths. But those figures don’t tell the whole story. All our gifted and talented cohort got at least 5A* or A grades, all pupils studying Biology and Physics got A* or A grades and 94% studying Chemistry got A* or A grades. Importantly as a non selective school serving the whole community, all our year 11 pupils last summer gained qualifications. We also have some exceptional students gaining in excess of 12 A* and A grades at GCSE. This year in our 6 form for example, 15% of the cohort are applying for Oxbridge, Harvard or UK medical schools.