Welcome from the Headmaster

Welcome to St Dunstan’s College; an ambitious, forward-thinking community that champions individuality through a broad, liberal and academically exciting education, whilst retaining our historic and valued traditions. 

Translating as ‘Adorn the White’, our College motto, Albam Exorna, is as relevant today as it was at the time of our Lewisham foundation, in 1888. Our white shield serves as the blank canvas onto which is emblazoned the story of each St Dunstan’s pupil. We support and inspire each individual to find their own way, make their own mark, and discover who they are; becoming comfortable with their emerging identity and the diversity of life that surrounds them, whilst being unashamedly ambitious for themself and their community.

We are ideally suited to enlivening this narrative. Our vibrant corner of south-east London presents us with a diversity we embrace and celebrate, allowing for all manner of cultures, views and styles. Our co-educational setting introduces pupils to the realities of life, staving-off gender stereotypes, and creating well-balanced, grounded young people. Our Nursery to Year 13 school allows for a community that cares for one another and engenders respect and kindness. Our namesake, St Dunstan – a great polymath – sits at the forefront of an inspiring, innovative history of cutting-edge education, and has helped us forge a deliberately wide-reaching, challenging and creative curriculum.

We are a school driven by our values, and the development of individual character above institutional personality. We cherish our diversity of pupils, with each being encouraged to navigate their own journey through life whilst being nurtured to develop the Courage to be who they are, the Creativity to develop new ideas and approaches, the Confidence to try, succeed and fail, the Compassion to understand and appreciate others, and the Curiosity to always want to discover more. 

In recent years we have proved ourselves to be at the forefront of educational thinking. Our Wellness Centre serves as a hub for the support of physical and mental health across the St Dunstan’s community. Our Co-Curricular Forder Programme, Summer Festival, Additional Stuart Curriculum, Sixth Form Diploma and the St Dunstan’s Diapason, are all born from a school that refuses to stand still and constantly looks at how we can do things differently and better.

In 2021, the College celebrated the opening of its most significant redevelopments of the site since the nineteenth century. State-of-the-art STEM facilities, a new Junior School and Sixth Form Centre were opened, and we are currently finishing a new Performing Arts Centre, which will open across the next few months. These new facilities sit alongside the relatively recent acquisition of an additional 30 acres of sporting facilities, just 5 minutes from the main College campus, now representing a centre for wide-reaching community engagement and sporting excellence. Our work with the broader community in Lewisham is an integral part of our identity.

We believe that St Dunstan’s is a school ideally positioned to offer an education that best develops young people who will not only thrive in the globalised world of which they are a part, but who will shape it. St Dunstan’s pupils will go on as the liberal-minded, well-informed, grounded and principled women and men this changing world so desperately needs. In 2019 we were deemed excellent in every category by the Independent School Inspectorate. In 2020, and despite the challenges of the pandemic, St Dunstan’s was named Independent Co-educational School of the Year at the prestigious Independent School of the Year Awards; a fitting testament to the creative energy and passion of our educational community.

I do hope that the unique culture of our school that I have tried to articulate resonates with your own thinking. Do enjoy looking at our website and getting a flavour for all that goes on here. If you feel your child would enjoy an environment such as this, or are interested in finding out more, please do not hesitate to come and see us; we are proud of our historic façade, but all the more excited by the energy and colour that is exuded within.

Mr Nicholas Hewlett

Headmaster