Much of the interior and fittings were avant garde and included specially designed 'Sedgehill furniture' that was later adopted by other schools run by the London County Council education department.

In spite of the previous interventions that Ofsted praised, the outcome metric of 5 A to C at GCSE, including maths and English, remains at 52%.

Often students were not given enough time to think through and explore solutions for themselves, or given sufficient responsibility to independently drive their learning forwards.

[5]The United Learning academy trust became a 'school improvement partner',[6] to address the longstanding criticism from Ofsted.

[8] After negotiation about the PFI debt, in September 2020 the school formally converted to academy status sponsored by United Learning.

[9][10][11] An assistant headteacher, Patrick Stack, was found hanged in an outbuilding in the school grounds in 2001.