Ravensbourne School, Bromley

The school was opened in 1911 as the Bromley County Grammar Schools for Boys and Girls, on two sites: Hayes Lane (boys) and Nightingale Lane (girls).[2] The Hayes Lane site was officially opened on 18 October 1911. They were later renamed Bromley Grammar Schools. The buildings in Hayes Lane were considerably extended in 1933, using the original architect and keeping to the original neo-Georgian design. The new buildings comprised the Great Hall (connected to the original building by an open cloister) the science block, and the dining hall and gymnasium on either side of the hall. The new buildings were officially opened on 30 November 1934. Many of the School's early buildings are recognised as being of historic interest and are Grade II listed.[3]

The schools were controlled by Kent Education Committee until 1965. The girls' school had around 700 girls in the mid-1960s.

In the late 1960s, following the then government's drive to phase out selective education, the Bromley Grammar Schools were merged with the nearby Raglan Road secondary modern school, to form the new Ravensbourne Schools, still on the two separate sites for boys and girls. The girls' school became comprehensive by degrees; the intake of 11-year-olds in September 1974 was the first non-selective one.

In 1988 the Education Authority decided that the two separate single sex schools should be amalgamated into one new co-educational comprehensive school. The girls' school site in Nightingale Lane was closed in July 1989 and a programme of building works was embarked upon in order to make the boys' school suitable for its new co-educational role. The new co-educational Ravensbourne School opened at the Hayes Lane site in September 1989.

In 1995 governors failed to properly check the CV of the school bursar who claimed to be a qualified accountant. In 2005 "massive deficits" in the schools' accounts were discovered and the bursar was found to have stolen money from the school using blank cheques signed by the headteacher.[4]

In 2003, with over subscription in Years 7 to 11 and an expanding sixth form called the Post 16 centre, yet more building work was undertaken. A new dedicated sixth form block was created, the drama studios expanded and the War Memorial Library refurbished in the original style. A new Lower School Library was installed in what was, in 1911, the dining hall for the original 79 boys.

In October 2009 the school was found to have "significant faults" with its appeals procedures when a government ombudsman found that members of its admissions panel were not properly trained and the clerk's recording of the appeal was "inadequate."[5]

On 1 April 2011, Ravensbourne School transferred to academy status. This allowed the school to manage its own finances.

A report released on 7 November 2018 alongside a DfE Financial Notice to Improve uncovers financial mismanagement relating to how the Ravensbourne School head teacher and Education for the 21st Century academy trust (E21C) CEO was paid for his duties as CEO. The trust failed to 'fully declare related party transactions, meet employee tax liabilities and seek prior ESFA approval of a novel, contentious and repercussive transaction'.[6] The trust paid its CEO excessively without justification through a means against legislation IR35, improperly documented these payments and failed to pay any tax on the total of £145,006.00 paid to the CEO for duties as CEO between 2014 and May 2018.[7]

The Ravensbourne head teacher, Mr Paul Murphy, was suspended as head teacher on 13 November 2018 after Bob Neill Conservative MP for Bromley and Chislehurst raised concerns in the House of Commons that he had been allowed to remain in post as headteacher despite his misconduct as CEO of the E21C trust.[8]

In January 2019, Paul Murphy resigned from his position of headteacher at the school. He was replaced by Mark O’Shaughnessy.

• Rt Rev Michael Baughen, Bishop of Chester from 1982 to 1996
• Sir Edward Britton CBE, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers from 1970–5
• Ian Brackenbury Channell, known as The Wizard of New Zealand
• Prof John Cole, Professor of Human and Regional Geography at the University of Nottingham from 1975 to 1994
• Nigel Finch, BBC documentary director[13] for Arena
• Billy Jenkins, guitarist
• Sir George Martin CBE, music producer
• Sir Michael Neubert, Conservative MP for Romford from 1974 to 1997
• Air Vice-Marshal John Pilkington CB CBE, Station Commander of RAF Waddington from 1979 to 1981 no article or reference-->
• Charles Sandbank, electronics engineer who was influential in the development at the BBC of NICAM sound compression and also in 1976 with STL for the first fibre-optic transmission
• Leslie Stanbridge, Church of England priest
• Ken Wood, inventor who produced the Kenwood Chef and formed Kenwood Limited (now owned since 2001 by the Italian company DeLonghi)
• Michael York, actor

• Billy Idol, rock musician
• Trevor Goddard, actor
• Martin Uden, diplomat

• Keeley Hazell, model and breast cancer awareness campaigner.
• Joivan Wade, actor.