[1] 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.

In 1972 the Inner London Education Authority proposed that Strand School be closed and its pupils transferred to Dick Sheppard.

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.

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.

Janet Boateng, the first black chairman of governors within the ILEA, when ousted by her own Labour Party group in 1983, accused the school of "deep seated racism".