Best private schools in Dulwich

There are only a handful of private junior and prep schools in the immediate vicinity and Dulwich Prep & Senior is probably the best known. Located on a 29-acre site in Alleyn Park, it’s the largest boys’ prep in the country and opened a senior school in September 2025. ‘Slick, perfectly presented and well-resourced, but not elitist,’ said our reviewer, who reckoned that it’s a school where most would thrive. 

DUCKS Kindergarten and Infants’ School, just off the Dulwich College campus, is the nursery and pre-prep for Dulwich College and offers places for boys and girls from 6 months to 7 years. After that, virtually all the boys head to Dulwich College: The Junior School while girls go to James Allen's Junior School, Alleyn’s Junior School, Sydenham High Prep, Oakfield Preparatory School, Rosemead Preparatory School, Streatham & Clapham Preparatory School or St Dunstan’s College Junior School among others. Herne Hill School, a thriving pre-prep, co-ed school for 2 to 7-year-olds and feeds into all the schools above. Our reviewer observed that it is a place where ‘childhood is celebrated, with chatty, cheerful, children learning and enjoying life’.

Many Dulwich parents set their hearts on one of the excellent all-through schools in the area – notably co-ed Alleyn’s or all-girls James Allen’s Girls’ School, both of which are heavily oversubscribed. With competition rife, some parents opt to send their children to schools slightly outside the immediate area instead. Rosemead Preparatory School in West Dulwich recently merged with St Dunstan’s and is a good, all-rounder school for boys and girls aged 2.5 to 11 while just up the road is Oakfield Preparatory School, a co-ed prep for 2 to 11-year-olds.

Two local GDST schools, Sydenham High School Prep and Streatham & Clapham Preparatory School, attract healthy numbers of junior girls from Dulwich. The former, near Crystal Palace Park, has the added attraction of two enormous giraffe sculptures at the school entrance while the latter has a family atmosphere with older girls acting as ‘playground buddies’ to their younger counterparts. 

For boys or co-ed preps, it depends on how far parents want their children to travel, but ‘busy, energetic’ St Dunstan’s College Junior School in Catford has the bonus of a linked senior school to which 80 to 90 per cent of junior girls and boys progress each year. 

Families in the west half of Dulwich may consider Clapham prep schools close enough for consideration.

The three independent senior schools in Dulwich attract pupils from far and wide. They are all highly selective and places are very sought after. These are schools at the top of their game with global reputations and whose pupils achieve impressive results.

All-boys’ Dulwich College, with its handsome Grade II listed buildings, may be 400 years old but its approach to learning and co-curricular is bang up to date. Co-ed Alleyn’s School is an ‘exciting, forward-thinking 21st-century school with a distinguished history, impressive academic results and outstanding opportunities on every front’, said our reviewer, while James Allen’s Girls’ School (always known as JAGS) offers ‘boundless opportunities for clever girls who have the grit and determination to succeed’. The yearly number of Oxbridge offers at each of these schools easily passes into double figures.

Children who don’t secure places at the Dulwich schools have plenty of other options across south London. Co-ed St Dunstan’s College in Catford, for example, runs a bus service from South Norwood Hill via Streatham and West Dulwich. Diverse, down-to-earth and inspiring, it’s ‘a great school for unstuffy polymaths’, said our reviewer. Similarly, co-ed Eltham College – described as ‘popular and desirable’ – runs a coach service from West Dulwich station.

Parents looking for a smaller, inclusive school may head to Fidelis College (formerly two separate schools, The Laurels (girls) and The Cedars (boys)) which has a Catholic ethos and is to be found in Upper Norwood. The school opened its own sixth form in 2024.

For families who want single-sex education for their daughters, two GDST schools, Sydenham High School and Streatham & Clapham High School, could be just the ticket. Sydenham High in nearby Westwood Hill is smaller, with just over 500 pupils and a sleek, new sixth form centre due to open soon. Streatham & Clapham High is close to Tooting Bec Common but its fleet of minibuses (emblazoned with the words ‘empowering girls to pursue ideals and knowledge’) ferry pupils from across south London.

There are several options in Croydon too. Trinity School (currently for boys aged 10 to 18 with girls in the sixth form but on the path to becoming fully coeducational by 2031), Whitgift School (for boys aged 10 to 18) and Royal Russell School (for boys and girls aged 3 to 18) all run buses from Dulwich.

Looking in the opposite direction, rail routes from Dulwich into London Victoria, Blackfriars and Farringdon mean that Westminster School, City of London School and City of London School for Girls respectively are eminently doable for Dulwich families.

Fairley House School (with a junior department in Lambeth and a senior department just off Vauxhall Bridge Road) is a school for children with specific learning difficulties. Most children have a primary diagnosis of dyslexia, dyspraxia or dyscalculia and at least average cognitive ability. ‘Inclusive, fun, intertwining therapy with lessons, all delivered by fabulous staff and a universally popular head,’ said our reviewer. ‘If any school can erase the damage caused by previous school experiences, this one can.’

Riverston School in Lee provides a mainstream education for children with mild learning needs and autism age 11-19. There is an extended sixth form where students can study vocational subjects with work placements or other qualifications, such as BTecs and A levels. Small class sizes and trained learning support assistants, as well as therapists assist in class.

BeyondAutism runs two schools in SW London for autism, severe learning needs, and/or SEMH, BeyondAutism Tram House School in Earlsfield for 11-19s and BeyondAutism Park House School in Wandsworth for primary aged children. Both provide small group and one-to-one support based on the Applied Behaviour Analysis approach. Large therapy staff advise and support in class.

PhoenixPlace is a small, not-for-profit special school in Camberwell for girls aged 11 to 16 with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs, speech, language and communication difficulties, ASD, ADHD, dyslexia and/or additional complex needs. It prides itself on providing ‘a safe, supportive and nurturing environment’ for students who have previously experienced difficulties.