Bishop Grant asked them to start a new school in Saint George's parish, Kennington.

The Brothers who taught in the Academy initially belonged to the Clapham Community and travelled each day to Kennington (the Bishop agreed to provide the money for their fares on the omnibus).

Starting in the early 1990s, the school went through a particularly troubled period with a series of OFSTED inspections that placed it in a category of either 'special measures' or 'serious weaknesses' for eleven years.

[citation needed] In 2002, at the initiative of the headteacher, Peter Stickings, and the chairman of governors, Brother Ben Foy, it was suggested that the only remedy for the terminal decline of St Joseph's would be for it to become part of the Academies programme, which was then being vigorously promoted by the government as a way of rescuing schools in serious difficulties, especially in London.

High-level discussions on the feasibility of the proposal took place involving the De La Salle Trustees, the Diocese of Southwark, the Department for Education and Science and Lewisham Borough Council.