The Charter School


For other educational establishments with a similar name please see William Penn School
The Charter School refers to two coeducational secondary schools with academy status in Dulwich, within the London Borough of Southwark, south London, England.
The Charter School North Dulwich opened in September 2000 and occupies a site on Red Post Hill next to North Dulwich railway station and nearby Herne Hill, 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 East Dulwich opened in 2016 and moved to a new site in the old Dulwich Community Hospital in 2019.

Charter School North Dulwich

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.. 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. Pam Bowmaker was asked to be the first headteacher due to her outstanding work in other schools.
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, before being replaced by former Deputy Headteacher David Sheppard in September 2008. David Sheppard improved behaviour at the school and led it to an Outstanding Ofsted award in 2008. David Sheppard was replaced by the next headteacher from 2014, Christ Hicks.
The school has just over 1,200 pupils on its roll from Year 7 to Year 13.

Charter School East Dulwich

On 9 March 2015, it was announced by the Department for Education that The Charter School Education Trust 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. The new school building, designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and constructed by The Kier Group opened to pupils in January 2019.
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 previously.