DLD College London

About DLD College London

DLD College London, affectionately known as DLD, is a multi-award-winning boarding and day school in the heart of London opposite the Houses of Parliament and close to Waterloo and South Bank. Its mission is to ‘Develop the next generation of Leaders to take their place in a challenging and Diverse world’; from now on, that is what DLD now means to us – Development, Leadership, and Diversity.

DLD was founded in 1931 by Davies, Laing & Dick to provide tutoring for Oxbridge and the Colonial Service entrance exams. After the Second World War, the college specialised in ‘A’ and ‘O’ Level teaching. Over some fifty years, there has been a gradual transformation so that DLD now is a school for 13-19 year-olds providing full-time education for some four hundred children.

Our pupils come to us from all over the world. They are attracted by our enviable location, wide range of subjects, high academic achievement, outstanding pastoral care and our award-winning boarding in the heart of London. Our focus is first and foremost on the wellbeing of our students (and staff) and removing any barriers to learning, which will help them be happy and achieve their potential both in and out of the classroom.

In September 2015, DLD College London relocated to brand new, purpose-built premises by Waterloo station, overlooking Westminster and the River Thames.  It focuses on each student as an individual, offering each child the best teaching and educational resources. It aims to build confidence, enabling them to accessvarious degree courses at top universities in the UK and worldwide. DLD is a school noted for its friendliness, warmth and informality – our award-winning Wellbeing Centre is the beating heart of the school.

As part of the Abbey DLD Group of Colleges, DLD aims to maintain a ‘gold standard’ of educational quality. Our pupils follow a number of academic pathways, from our ground-breaking Year 9 curriculum, GCSEs and A Levels, to BTECs and our popular International Foundation Programmes (IFP). Classes are small, enabling students and teachers to focus on the most effective ways of learning.  We stretch and challenge our students, motivating them and raising their expectations of themselves. Moreover, our learning community is supported by e-learning platforms and a desire to develop core skills necessary for the future of work.

Theschool offers superb, modern teaching facilities and resources in one of London’s safest and most accessible areas, a stone’s throw from Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament. While the school is strong in all academic areas, our creative arts continue to flourish, and our theatre, art and design, music and photography studios are scintillating and inspiring places.  Our boarding provides some 250 rooms in our purpose-built boarding house directly above our school premises.

DLD recently won the Special Judges’ Independent School of the Year Award and the ‘Boarding School of the Year’ Award in 2020 and again in 2023. DLD has also recently won the Independent Schools’ Association award for ‘Innovation in Pupil Voice’ and Talk Education’s ‘Innovation in Education’ in 2023. It was one of the finalists in the 2020 TES Awards for Boarding School of the Year and has been listed in the prestigious Tatler’s Schools guide in 2022, 2023 and 2024. In addition, DLD is the only school in the UK to receive the Gold Award for ‘Mental Health in Boarding’ from the Carnegie School of Education.

DLD is a thriving boarding and day school with an enviable range of co-curricular activities, including sporting, cultural and social opportunities using ‘London as its Classroom’. The Good School’s Guide recently said, “It is one of the most unique and exciting schools in Britain: urban, modern, forward-looking and undeniably cool”.

We look forward to welcoming you to DLD College London soon.

Child Protection

Each college’s Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy can be accessed the colleges website Policies | Independent College, London | DLD College London

Checks and Training

• Enhanced DBS checks to ascertain your suitability to work with children will be carried out. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and therefore all convictions, cautions and bindovers, including those regarded as ‘spent’ must be declared.

• Online searches will be carried out on candidates for any unsuitable content by or about candidates.

• Two written & verbal references from previous employers and a personal reference will be sought. Your referees will be asked about your suitability to work with children and whether you know of any disciplinary offences relating to children or young persons and whether you have been the subject of any child protection allegations or concerns and if so the outcome of any enquiry or disciplinary procedure.

• Your full employment history will be checked, any significant gaps will require explanation and proof of any relevant qualifications will need to be provided.

• You will be required to complete Child Protection Training via e-learning prior to commencing employment.

• Pre-employment health screening will be carried out.