As a result of the government's Circular 10/65 in 1965, plans were implemented to merge Chislehurst and Sidcup with the neighbouring Hurstmere into a single comprehensive school, although these were opposed by the successive Conservative Party administrations of Bexley Council, eventually being scuppered under the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. In 1973 the school was made co-educational, admitting female pupils alongside the male, resulting in the adoption of its current name. The school rose to national headlines in January 1983 following the suspension of most of the school's sixth form for drinking alcohol at the preceding Christmas party. In 2004 it became a sports college and in 2011 an academy.