The school was named after Ernest Bevin, a British labour leader and politician. It was formed through merging the two adjacent schools of Bec Grammar and Hillcroft Secondary Modern in 1971. The school was briefly named Bec-Hillcroft until 1971, at which point it became Ernest Bevin School and eventually in 1996 Ernest Bevin College. Hillcroft Secondary School, Bec-Hillcroft and Ernest Bevin School ran under the aegis of the Inner London Education Authority until it was abolished by the Education Reform Act 1988. Since then the school has been run by the London Borough of Wandsworth. Ernest Bevin College has been a specialist college for Sport since 2000. Because of improvement in academic achievement, the college was offered a second specialism in Mathematics and Computing in 2004.
Dress code
Ernest Bevin College, like most secondary schools, has a strict dress code. The school uniform for those in Key Stages 3 and 4 is a white shirt, optional black V-neck jumper, black trousers, black shoes, black blazer with Ernest Bevin phoenix and flames logo on the left pocket, and a colour-striped tie representing the student's year group.
School tie colour
Red, green, purple, yellow and blue are the tie colours representing each year group. When a student joins in year 7, he is given the colour which was the colour to the year 11 the previous academic year. This tie colour remains the same for the remainder of the student's time in school until reaching sixth form. Prior to 1980, the school was divided into four houses each with a different tie and badge colours: Faraday, Shaftsbury, Wellington and Churchill. Each pupil would remain in their respective house until they left school. In or around 1968, a special sixth form badge was created and, in addition, School Prefects would be entitled to wear a special tie with the standard school motif of a Viking ship upon it. All of this was created to show that the individual had grown to senior status within the school system and was highly thought of as an individual. The house names and colours are in alphabetical order - Churchill, blue - Faraday, Green - Shaftesbury, red - Wellington, yellow. All are named after historical characters, though none with a connection to the school.
The Gifted and Talented programme at the college caters for the top 5-10% of the pupils in each year who are identified as having either all round academic ability or specific talents in areas such as sport, music, art and technology.
Sports at Ernest Bevin College
Sports the school currently participates in, or facilitates students’ participation in, include:
Ernest Bevin has won many tournaments in volleyball – most notably so in recent years, the U16 Boys Nationals Title. They were succeeded by Newcastle Volleyball Club in 2009.
Judo is one of the four focus sports at Ernest Bevin College and students are offered many opportunities to participate in the sport. The Judo team is licensed by British Judo Association and is called Ernest Bevin Phoenix Judo Club.
Harris J, British singer with a platinum selling album and a single.
Ian Lawrence, British over 40 and over 50 Cycle Speedway Champion.
Lee R Lawrence, British over 50 Cycle Speedway Champion.
Achievements
Ernest Bevin College and Sixth Form Centre has received a number of awards. These include recognition of its specialist schools status and Leading Edge status.
Ernest Bevin College was the first secondary school in Wandsworth to be awarded the nationally recognised ‘Healthy Schools Status’ in recognition of its whole school/whole child approach to health.
