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This all-boys prep in dreamy Dulwich has a storied 135-year history, but is bang up-to-date in its holistic approach to education. A school unafraid of doing things differently, it is proving itself once again by extending its remit to Year 11. The first cohort of Year 9s starts in September 2025, and year groups capped at 60 mean small classes and the opportunity to sit GCSEs early. ‘We want to offer a more bespoke personal journey,’ says the school. 

Academics are important but so is pastoral care and instilling values such as love, gratitude, service and humility. Hugely impressive head Louise Davidson is passionate about positive masculinity and fostering a growth mindset that allows boys to discover who they are and consider their place when it comes to issues like gender, race and neurodiversity. Thoughtful, focused boys, fully prepared to stand up tall in the world are the result.

A smart red-brick building on tree-lined Alleyn Park (not far from West Dulwich and Sydenham Hill stations) behind whose striking façade you’ll find an assortment of classrooms scattered around a generously sized playground. The boys get the feel of a country prep with the hustle and bustle of central London a stone’s throw away. Lots of boys cycle to school.

Despite the sheer size of the school in numbers – at 800 pupils, it’s the biggest boys’ prep in the country – it does not feel crowded and the boys seem to magic themselves away quite nicely. The classrooms are big and airy, and we were blown away by the MasterChef Suite; a superb area for the boys to practise their culinary skills. There’s a roof garden like Fortnum & Mason’s, with a meadow space, beehives and observatory. There are 25 acres of playing fields over the railway tracks (a five-minute walk away) – pretty good for a London prep. Dulwich College is within waving distance but the two are separate entities.

Louise Davidson arrived here in 2019. She is a real powerhouse, has charisma by the bucket-load, and over 20 years’ experience in the private and maintained sectors. Full of energy, she told us that for her, Dulwich Prep is about ‘boys learning holistically and building good character’. She has lunch with boys regularly, teaches civics to Years 7 and 8, and operates a wonderful open-door policy (quite literally – her office has big French doors opening out onto the playground, which stay open at all times, weather permitting). She’s fully committed to the boys’ emotional education, understanding what a vulnerable time it is to be a young boy, and determined to help pupils to learn, understand and exercise empathy.

Boys and girls are welcome in the nursery from age two (there are two applicants per place) and parents need to register in the year their little one turns two. The Early Years (Nursery and Reception) are housed on the separate Gallery Road campus, set in five acres of fields and woodland and a 10-minute walk away from the Prep School. Boys then head up to the Pre-Prep at the Alleyn Park campus when they turn five and continue through to 13.

The main intakes are Nursery, Reception, Year 3 and Year 7 (with around three applicants competing for each place). The school is selective at all entry points and looks for spritely boys with good academic grounding and a can-do attitude. Despite the stellar standards here, Miss Davidson is keen to ensure that an education is about much more than just grades and results. Boys leave here as confident leaders and risk takers – and are unafraid to think outside the box.  

There is no automatic priority for siblings, but it’s worth knowing that there is a small fee discount for a third child. A limited number of means-tested bursaries are available for pupils in Year 3 or above.

Academics are tip-top, and as boys move up the school, they start moving around the campus for specialist teaching in almost every subject. From Years 1 to 5, boys learn both Spanish and French (before picking one language to focus on), there’s a gentle introduction to Philosophy from Year 3, and Latin kicks in in Year 6. Languages are strong, with many boys gaining language scholarships to senior school every year. The school is ‘fully Apple’ with an iPad for every boy to use in class from Year 3 and up.  

Boys disperse to a mix of over 50 top senior schools, including London day schools and the very best boarding schools in the country, from Harrow to Winchester. Pre-test, 11+ and 13+ results are supersonic, with stacks of scholarships (over 70 last year) in everything from academics to art, music and drama. About 40 boys head off to Dulwich College (just around the corner) each year, and there is increasing interest in co-ed options such as Alleyn’s and Royal Russell School.

And there's some breaking news: from September 2025, Dulwich Prep London will extend its provision for boys until 16. The change is designed to help provide more options for families, and the opportunity to find the right senior school or sixth form at the right time for their son. The school will continue to support families who wish to transition at 11+ or 13+, but the new additional option of an exit at 16 will reduce or remove the pressure of exams on younger boys – and, of course, offer them the continuity of a familiar environment. We're told that there'll be a wonderfully boutique feel to Years 9-11, with a maximum of 60 boys in a year group – and we're excited to watch the plans unfold. New senior head Loren Carville has already arrived from Haberdashers' Aske's and buildings are being reconfigured to create flexible learning spaces and quiet study areas. We can’t wait to see how it all unfolds.

Sport is central to life at Dulwich Prep, with rugby, football and cricket the firm favourites and regular fixtures against the likes of St Paul’s Junior, Northcote Lodge and Whitgift. Footie stars have qualified for the finals of the national six-a-side competition three times in recent years, and swimmers regularly finish in the top three at national level (the pool is a hop, skip and jump from the classrooms). Sport isn’t just for the gifted though; the school ensures all boys develop a level of physical activity regardless of skill, which lays a healthy foundation for adulthood.   

The music department bowled us over with 500 music lessons reverberating around the school each week and 30 musical ensembles. Boys regularly sing at Southwark Cathedral, and the fully equipped music technology studio with iMacs is a nice touch. Add to that over 15 stage productions a year, and there’s plenty for small performers to get stuck into.  

The art room was opened by the director of the Saatchi Gallery and the standard is high. Every year, work is submitted to a plethora of prestigious competitions, and over £25,000 has been raised for charity in the past 10 years through selling boys’ artwork. We were particularly impressed by the stone carvings and paper sculptures on display when we visited.

Cooking is big at the school, led by the inspiring head of cookery Zita Steyn. The younger boys do cooking a couple of times a term and by Upper School they have eight lessons a term. It imaginatively supports the academic curriculum; on our visit Ms Steyn was preparing ingredients for a lesson on how to make a granola mixture similar to the rations Shackleton and his crew took on their expedition to the Antarctic, a subject they are looking at in history and geography. We also saw boys dressed as mummies and Pharaohs at lunch in the big, open-plan dining room, as part of the Egyptian topic they were working on. School meals are exceptional – not a glimpse of anything processed – and the school produces its own honey and herbs and veg.

Academics are bolstered by a co-curricular programme bursting with over 150 different clubs and activities. This is complemented nicely by the Prep+ cultural adventures, a series of cheery visits to exhibitions, theatres and museums for boys, parents, siblings and staff. Weekly lectures are also in the mix, with speakers including the BBC’s Justin Webb on Trump’s America and a visit to the Royal Geographical Society for a talk with Ben Fogle. The boys give their own mini TED talks too on themes such as ‘What would make the world a better place?’ Boys often join forces with their peers at Sydenham High School to help broaden their learning experience and prepare them for the switch to co-ed senior schools.

The school has a nurturing atmosphere. We spotted the boys hurtling happily around the playground – a joyful sight in the sometimes pressurised environment of a London day school. The Tribe system creates togetherness and camaraderie, with flags flown and trumpets blown when victories are declared, and in the Upper School, boys are encouraged to act as role models and mentors to younger pupils. Everyone we spoke to seemed hugely proud to be a pupil here. The school is outward looking too, with strong links to local primaries. The school also hosts local senior citizens every Christmas for lunch and a game or two of bingo with the older boys. The boys have also produced a poetry book, Poetry for Peace, to raise money for Ukraine, fundraise for a local Downs Syndrome charity and host a big sleep out, which includes setting up a soup kitchen with the help of the catering staff. Charity outreach is certainly no box-ticking exercise with pupils fully and practically engaged in the school’s values of service and love.

Dulwich Prep has a strong focus on wellbeing, with a dedicated wellbeing suite that houses the school counsellor and the school nurse whose doors are always open for the boys to drop in. This is a hugely outward-facing school, with boys throwing themselves into initiatives both locally and nationally.

Before-and-after-school care is growing in popularity – a saviour for hard-working parents. Breakfast is available from 7am and boys can stay until 7.30pm tackling prep, revision or just taking time out to read. Ad hoc boarding is now also available, with nine beds that can be booked the day before they are needed. This is a real godsend for parents who have to travel for work or whose childcare falls through, and it also gives boys who are considering a boarding senior school a taster of what it can be like.

Boys don’t just hail from the village. The majority are far-flung (in London terms) – Bromley, Blackheath, Wandsworth, Peckham, Chelsea, Clapham – and the catchment area is ever-expanding. ‘Wherever Jay Rayner [The Observer’s food critic] does a restaurant review, that’s where our parents come from,’ says an insider. Dulwich Prep takes an imaginative approach to bringing in 850 boys each day, ranging from “walking buses”, to the Dulwich Foundation Schools Coach Service.

Fantastic results, on-point pastoral care and a country-prep feel in the city – there’s not much Dulwich doesn’t get spot on. And with boys now able to stay until 16, it’s an even more compelling choice. Dulwich Prep pupils are very lucky indeed to spend their formative years in a community like this one.