What We Believe

“Of course it is happening inside your head Harry but why on earth should that not make it real?”

We seek to unlock the extraordinary potential of every child from the inside out. As everyone’s personal consciousness – our inner world – colours how each of us approaches life, we believe it makes sense to start with the inside, and work out.

Everything we do at Dulwich is designed to help our children to believe in themselves. We focus on nurturing each child’s self-awareness and self-belief because how they feel and think has immense influence on their capacity to learn and their ability to embrace every opportunity.

We want every child to truly relish the beautiful messy process of learning and participate fully in school life so we make sure each child feels incredibly well-supported – emotionally, physically and intellectually.

We empower all our children to be the very best they can be through a rich, broad and dynamic curriculum designed to inspire every child, reveal their inner talents and to stretch them.

We believe children blossom when they are given responsibility so every child is given a role in representing our school. As our children progress up the school their responsibilities increase until they are ready in Year 8 to share in the responsibility of the running of the school.

As a caring and compassionate community we encourage and support all our children in their endeavours to make a positive and active contribution to the wider community – locally, nationally and internationally.

Then when the time comes to leave us every child will have developed the skills and inner confidence to flourish in the next stage of their journey, ready to embrace the opportunities the world outside has to offer.

Our purpose and values

Our purpose is to nurture confident and compassionate children who fulfil their extraordinary potential today and tomorrow.

We have six core values that we believe help us to fulfil our purpose and unlock the potential of very child.

Our values are INSIDE.

We value individuality

No two children are exactly the same, so we don’t treat them as if they are.

We seek to ignite each child’s curiosity, reveal each child’s hidden talent, and ensure each child fulfils their unique potential.

We value the systems we have in place that enable us to be very responsive to individual pupil’s needs.

We encourage each other to share our interests and endeavours knowing that each of us in turn will inspire others.

We are nurturing

We support and encourage each other.

We pride ourselves on our attentiveness, our ability to listen and our desire to understand. Our children value each other and understand the importance of being caring and kind.

We believe the safer we feel, the happier we are, the greater our capacity to be inspired.

We instil self-belief

Everything we do is centred around enabling our children to believe in themselves.

We are always seeking opportunities to help our children see their own potential by giving them responsibilities and inviting them to participate in the fullness of school life.

We are huge advocates of growth mindset, and encourage everyone to build on every success, learn from every mistake and celebrate every milestone.

We encourage innovation

We are forward-thinking and open-minded.

Passionate about our subject specialisms and keen to embrace the latest pedagogy we are constantly seeking new and innovative ways to engage and inspire our pupils.

We are excited by the possibilities of the future and conscious of the speed of change, especially around technology, so we look to equip our children with the skills they need both today and tomorrow. 

We look to delight

We look to delight and surprise each other and ourselves.

We want school to feel exhilarating. We want our children to amaze and be amazed. We want them to enjoy the thrill of learning.

We help everyone immerse themselves in school life, so great friendships can be forged, passions pursued, wonderment and laughter shared, and success celebrated.

We believe every child is extraordinary

We are ambitious for our children.

We encourage our children to aim high, to be the very best they can be. We inspire our children to exceed their expectations by opening their eyes and minds to the limitless possibilities.

We look to set the benchmark in excellence in what ever we undertake – from teaching through to catering.

Ordinary is simply not in our vocabulary.