Archbishop Tenison's C of E School, Lambeth

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Tenison's Crest

Archbishop Tenison's C of E School, is a Church of England boys Secondary School located in the London Borough of Lambeth.

Thomas Tenison, an educational evangelist and later Archbishop of Canterbury, founded several schools in the late 17th and early 18th Century. A boys' school at the Oval was founded in 1685 and a girls' school was formally established in 1706 for 12 girls. In 1863 a new school building was erected at 18 Lambeth High Street. The girls school closed in 1957 but the building still stands. Tenison founded another school in Croydon in 1714.

Archbishop Tenison's is now an 11-18 voluntary aided, boys comprehensive school, part of the educational provision of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark and the London Borough of Lambeth. Girls are admitted to the Sixth Form. The school became a Specialist Arts College in 2003. The school caters for around 500 pupils, of whom 50 are in the Sixth Form.

The badge of the schools founded by Tenison are based on his personal coat of arms: 'Gules, a bend engrailed argent voided azure, between three leopards' faces or jessant-de-lys azure.' In standard English: a red field bearing a white (or silver) diagonal band with scalloped edges, and a narrower blue band running down its centre. This lies between three gold leopards' faces, each of which is pierced by a blue fleur-de-lys entering through the mouth.