Tom Shepherd became head teacher of Sprowston High School in 1980 and was succeeded by Geoff Best in 1989. They both had visions of taking the school into the community and bringing the community into the school. The sports hall and swimming pool were the first of the facilities to be opened to the public. These were run by a partnership between the School, Broadland District Council and a Management Team from the community. Late in 2002 another partnership was formed between the School, Broadland District Council, Norfolk Adult Education Service and the Youth and Community Service under the umberella of a recently formed Sprowston Heritage. The School were applying for special status and Sprowston Heritage was bidding for a lottery grant to allow them to develop within the community. Both were eventually successful. The School then became 'Sprowston High School and Arts College', (later, 'Sprowston Community High School'). Part of the special status and lottery agreements was for each party to encourage the community into the school through various projects and to provide a community room. The first room was in the house occupied by the Norfolk Adult Education Service (No.101), but this was soon outgrown and eventually room 77 was designated as a community room under the auspices of Sprowston Heritage and the School. It was proposed by the School Association that room 77 should be renamed 'The Tom Shepherd Community Room' in recognition of his original vision of integrating the school into the community. In November of 2006 the room was renamed. The present head Teacher, Andrew John also suppports the idea of the school being part of the community. This room is now the headquarters of Sprowston Heritage and stores historical facts about the local area and people. It also houses the 'Comma Computer Archive'. The room is open to the community by contacting Sprowston Heritage.