Gap Year Student

Alleyn’s is one of the country’s leading co-educational independent day schools, committed to developing excellence within an ethos of strong pastoral care and a vibrant co-curriculum. Our holistic approach aims to nurture every pupil, enabling them to develop their potential while making friendships and enjoying life to the full.

We believe that learning together in a supportive environment provides the best framework for boys and girls to excel at school, to discover new ideas, skills and enthusiasms and to prepare for university and the multi-gendered world of work and life in general. Links with local and overseas schools, universities and charities provide further opportunities to enrich that learning in different contexts and to make new and lasting friends.

Our community is warm, caring and inclusive. We are very proud of our pupils, who leave us with excellent examination results, places at some of the world’s top universities and specialist centres of higher education, and with a sense of confidence, mutual respect and social responsibility. We greatly value our committed and hard-working staff, whose dedication makes possible the achievements of our pupils.

Alleyn’s is a vibrant, selective, independent day school with around 1,400 pupils aged 4 to 18; around 1,100 of those are in the senior school (11 to 18). Part of the Dulwich Foundation, and set in the heart of Dulwich, close to the centre of London, Alleyn’s is one of the most sought after and successful co-educational schools in the country, delivering academic and co-curricular excellence in a welcoming and supportive atmosphere. Our pupils achieve truly outstanding results at GCSE and A-Level, and their achievements stem from the way they are encouraged to focus on who they are, rather than what they do, and to celebrate each other and the community around them.

Values (the Alleyn's ROCCK!)

• Respect
• Opportunity
• Curiosity
• Courage
• Kindness

Why we are 'all' at Alleyn's

We love the fact that there is an ‘all’ in ‘Alleyn’s’. We truly delight in our kind, inclusive, varied, energetic and ambitious community in which we aim to ensure that we can all be, all we can be. That is true of pupils, staff and the school at large. We do this through the school aims, which are to:

· Promote respect, well-being and diversity in a caring community where every individual can flourish.

· Develop curiosity, wonder, creativity and a love of learning.

· Inspire ambition and intellectual rigour through excellent teaching and learning.

· Cultivate discovery and opportunity through an outstanding co-curriculum.

· Foster awareness, leadership and connection through partnership and enterprise.

· Cherish the wider Alleyn’s family and honour our historic commitment to Edward Alleyn’s charitable foundation of God’s gift.

The School's Place in Dulwich

Alleyn’s is one of three independent Dulwich Senior Schools, the other two being Dulwich College, a boys’ school, and James Allen’s Girls’ School (JAGS), each of which has its own linked junior school.

Although entirely independent of one another, the three Dulwich Schools are part of the wider Dulwich Foundation, which includes The Dulwich Estate, Christ’s Chapel, an alms house and four schools outside Dulwich.

The Foundation dates back to 1619, with a bequest from Edward Alleyn, the actor-manager and contemporary of Shakespeare, who bequeathed his land in Dulwich and founded Alleyn’s College of God’s Gift in 1619 ‘for the education of twelve poor scholars’.

We moved to our own 30-acre site on Townley Road in 1887 and, in 1976, were one of the first independent schools to go fully co-educational.

The schools of the Dulwich Foundation educate over 4,000 pupils drawn from a wide catchment area, extending from Wimbledon in the southwest to Bromley in the south and Blackheath in the southeast, with more and more pupils also coming from north of the Thames.

The schools jointly run a coach service, taking pupils to and from most parts of the catchment area.

Alleyn’s is committed to sharing its facilities with the local community and has established a standing committee to oversee the use of its premises for the community as a whole.

Co-educational Community

Girls and boys at Alleyn’s genuinely enjoy learning together, and this is a very happy school. Our pupils are encouraged to appreciate each other’s achievements and contributions, and it is wonderful to see them grow in confidence as our co-ed community offers them a wonderful variety of ways to develop skills and cement lifelong friendships. Our pupils are grounded, highly engaged, good fun and a delight to work with.

The Junior School is a member of IAPS, with pupils aged from 4 to 11 and the Senior School is an HMC school with pupils aged from 11 to 18.

There are just over 1,100 pupils in the Senior School, of whom around 30% are in the Upper School (Sixth Form). Our main intake to the Senior School is at 11+ and there are further new places at 16+.

We have seven year 7 classes of around 25 children each, with smaller classes common at GCSE. Upper School teaching sets are normally not larger than 14 and are usually sized 8 to12.

Inclusive Community

We are dedicated to achieving educational excellence through inclusion, and a wide range of means-tested bursaries and scholarships supports this goal. They allow us to offer places to those pupils most able to benefit from an Alleyn’s education, irrespective of financial means.

At the moment we provide means-tested bursary assistance to over 10% of our pupils. This means that one in ten of our pupils are able to attend Alleyn’s who would otherwise not be able to. This is one of many reasons why Alleyn’s is such a distinctive and inspiring place to work. Our aim is to double this bursary percentage in the coming years.

Care of Pupils

Pupils in all year groups have a Form Tutor - a daily point of contact – as well as a Head of Year. Pupils have the same Tutor for their time in the Lower School (Years 7 and 8) under the care of the Head of Lower School.

In Year 9, pupils move to the Middle School where in addition to being part of a Tutor Group, they join one of eight Houses. The eight Heads of House are responsible for pastoral welfare from Years 9 to 13 in conjunction with the Assistant Heads responsible for these years: Head of Middle School (Years 9, 10 and 11) and Head of Upper School (Years 12 and 13).

Our weekly PSHE period affords a regular space within the curriculum for every pupil to develop the essential personal, social, health and critical-thinking skills they need to successfully and safely navigate their worlds.

Each House supports a charity, and team games, music, debating and other inter-house competitions are also organised through the house system.

The School has its own Chaplain and Assistant Chaplain and a dedicated team of nurses. There are also qualified counsellors available to pupils. In addition, all staff have access to our Health Assured (Employee Assistance Programme) and everyone in the community benefits from our school ‘Teen Tips’ registration.

The School ROCCK values (respect, opportunity, curiosity, courage and kindness) underpin all behaviour, activity and attitudes in pupils and staff alike.

Exam Results

We have a proud record of outstanding exam results, regularly ranked in the top 20 independent schools. Our latest A Level results are the school’s best exam outcomes to date. 40% of grades at A Level were A*, 78% were A* or A and 95% were A*, A or B. Students secured a record number of first and second choice university places, with the majority progressing to their preferred university. They go on to top centres of learning in the UK and overseas, including Oxbridge, Russell Group universities and prestigious US destinations such as Yale University.

At GCSE results were also excellent: 46% of grades awarded were grade 9, and 72% were 9 or 8. The vast majority of pupils join the Upper School at Alleyn’s and study A levels here.

Curriculum

There is a common curriculum in Year 7. Subjects taught include Art, Biology, Chemistry, Computing, Design Technology, Food and Nutrition, Dance, Drama, English, Geography, History, Latin, Maths, Music, PE & Games, Physics, Religious Studies, our own Discovering Languages course and our Alleyn’s Learners’ Programme (ALP). These subjects continue in Year 8 and pupils study two modern languages chosen from Spanish, French, German and, from September 2023 onwards, Mandarin.

There is a wide choice of subject options in Years 10 and 11. The current GCSE curriculum includes English Language, English Literature, Mathematics, a Modern Foreign Language and the three Sciences (the vast majority do the Triple Award) alongside a wide choice of options available to all students.

The Upper School options system offers immense choice and flexibility. All pupils currently study for 3 A Levels plus an EPQ or 4 A Levels in addition to PSHE and Enrichment.

Every teacher is issued with a Surface Pro device to support them in all aspects of Teaching and Learning and we operate a ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) scheme for all pupils, however during the school day we do have a ‘no mobile phone’ policy in place for pupils below the Upper School.

Academic Enrichment

We are committed to academic enrichment, both inside and outside the classroom, providing opportunities for pupils to learn new things, extend their horizons and develop a lifelong love of learning and a keen appreciation of the life of the mind.

To this end, we have developed a bespoke integrated course, the Alleyn’s Learners’ Programme, which has increased the number and quality of visiting speakers coming into school and created new opportunities for pupils to develop their ideas in extended project work.

We will continue to extend this work over the coming years, providing intellectual stretch, challenge and enrichment for the entire Alleyn’s community, without compromising our trademark co-educational warmth, co-curricular balance and happiness.

Co-curricular

The Alleyn’s co-curricular programme is one of the jewels in our crown. We offer a wide range of co-curricular activities to complement the academic curriculum and provide pupils with experiences and opportunities beyond the formal classroom. These are an integral and essential part of an all-round holistic education where we recognise that individuals flourish in a supportive environment in which all their abilities and talents are acknowledged and encouraged. All members of the teaching staff are expected to play a full part in both the enrichment activities within their own department and the school co-curriculum more broadly.

In Year 10, the vast majority of pupils join the CCF, Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme or the Volunteering programme and there are a great number of clubs, societies and other activities available to all year groups.

In Sport, the PE Department offers opportunities at all levels. The PE/Games curriculum throughout the School is varied, encompassing a wide variety of team games and individual sports. School teams run in a large number of sports, and practices for every sport are open to all pupils.  Over the course of a year, well over three-quarters of the pupils in the School will have taken part in some competitive sport.

Pupils also engage with and really benefit from our many Outreach opportunities. We enjoy close relationships with a number of local schools and community groups including sharing facilities with them. In addition to these areas of our partnership work we work closely with Southwark Community Education Council, Southwark Schools’ Learning Partnership, multiple charities, local and global partnerships, the Alms House (as part of The Foundation) and London Academy of Excellence Tottenham.

In Music there are over thirty performing groups including orchestras, choirs, wind bands, jazz bands, rock bands, and numerous chamber ensembles. Regular performance opportunities exist throughout the year, ranging from informal weekly lunchtime recitals to major concerts in prestigious venues. In recent years, pupils have performed in St John’s Smith Square, Westminster Abbey, the Blackheath Concert Halls, and the Hideaway Club in Streatham.

In Drama there are usually three main productions each year, with additional pupil-led Bearpit productions. In Dance there are several different groups rehearsing weekly, and an annual Dance Show takes place in the school theatre.

All teaching staff are expected to involve themselves actively in our co-curricular programme,
and much of the vibrancy, warmth and fun in our school comes from that.

Facilities

The School has approximately 30 acres of grounds with extensive playing fields. There is a high-quality floodlit, sand-dressed astroturf, a multi-use games area, a sports hall, floodlit all-weather netball courts, a cinder running track, strength and conditioning studios and a 25m, 6-lane pool with a viewing gallery and Olympic touch-timing system.

The Edward Alleyn Building (EAB) provides a theatre and additional facilities for teaching, pastoral care and the performing arts.

The library is very well stocked and well used, and individual departments are all extremely well resourced. High speed Wi- Fi is provided across the site and all classrooms are equipped with Clevertouch screens.

In recent years, we have seen a new wing added to the Science Building; opened our brand-new Lower School - which comprises of twelve state-of-the-art classrooms as well as seminar rooms and a large atrium space; the staff Common Room and Sixth Form Centre have both been refurbished in the Senior School. The Junior School was fully redeveloped in 21/22 (this included the construction of the brand-new Rose Building with a new school hall at its heart and the complete refurbishment of the existing Fortune Building). Alongside the landscaping of all the outdoor areas, the Junior School was also able to expand its Infant department.

Most recently we have opened ‘The Alleyn’s Well’ - our new wellness centre - and have just completed an ambitious and exciting masterplan for site development over the coming years.

Commitment to Safeguarding

We are fully committed to providing a safe environment for children, staff and visitors. We promote a climate where anyone in the community can freely share their concerns about themselves, or others, in terms of individual safety and well-being.

We protect the interests of the children at Alleyn’s through awareness among all members of staff about the kinds of issues of abuse, maltreatment and neglect that would impair a pupil’s health or development. In this way, Alleyn’s supports its pupils’ development by fostering security, confidence and independence.

We provide an environment in which children and young people feel safe, secure, valued and respected, and know how to approach adults if they or those whom they know are in difficulties, with the assurance that they will be listened to.

Everyone in the staff community at Alleyn’s takes responsibility for safeguarding, and we always aim to act in the best interests of the child.