A question arose about the history of Richmond Park Academy during the discussion about the history of East Sheen at the Barnes Homeguard Association yesterday. It is the most recent in a succession of schools that have occupied the location on Park Avenue and Hertford Avenue in East Sheen. 

There has been a school at the site since 1895. East Sheen County School for Boys opened on 18 January 1927 on Hertford Avenue. A review of education in the county commencing in 1937 concluded that local population numbers were relatively stable so there were significant economies to be made by reducing the number of county schools in the borough from four to two.  In 1939, despite local opposition, the boys from Richmond County School were merged with East Sheen County School for Boys at the Sheen site and renamed Richmond and East Sheen County School for Boys and in 1957 as Shene County Grammar School for Boys.

From 1973 the former grammar school sixth form was expanded and the school became Shene College, predominantly a sixth form college but, due to the remaining grammar school pupils, not entirely so. With dwindling pupil numbers and some staff increasingly sharing roles across Richmond and Shene sites, the remaining pupils and staff  of Richmond County School for Girls merged with the remainder of the boys’ school at the Shene site in 1974.

In a further borough education reorganisation in 1977, the Shene site became the Shene Comprehensive School. The school retained its predecessor’s motto: “Enrich the Time to Come” and the school crest was a deer surmounted by a globe. The motto is now ‘Find Your Remarkable’ and the crest an acorn tree.

A major reorganisation of education and the end of selective education in the borough in the early 1970s caused the demise of the school. Shene Grammar took in its final intake of pupils in September 1972.

As a result of unsatisfactory attainment over several years, an OFSTED report in September 2007 gave Shene School Notice to Improve.  In August 2010 Richmond upon Thames Council announced that the Department for Education had approved the proposal to grant the school status as an Academy. Shene School closed and in September 2010 Richmond Park Academy opened on the same site. In 2011 the academy secured almost £10 million of government funding for building improvements. Renovation and new building work was finished in 2015,  A monitoring inspection conducted in December 2011, 15 months after the school re-opened as an Academy, noted that the school had made good progress in raising standards and that teaching was improving, with an increasing proportion that is good or outstanding. 
 

In December 2022 Richmond Park Academy was fully inspected by OfSTED and achieved a good rating in all categories.  Summer results in 2023 reinforced the school’s growing reputation where outcomes were placed in the top 10% for attainment in England.  

Save to make money for use elsewhere in the borough what sense does it make to build another secondary school a mere mile away to threaten the now excellent offer at Richmond Park Academy?