Welcome to Harris Boys' Academy East Dulwich

Welcome to Harris Boys’ Academy East Dulwich.

This website is a window into the world of our amazing Academy and we hope it will give you a good flavour of what it is like to be a student here.

We are proud to be one of the best boys’ schools in the country and, as you navigate through our site, you will see some of the many brilliant things we offer students.

I was appointed Principal of Harris Boys’ Academy East Dulwich in November 2023 am so proud to lead such an incredible team of staff who give everything to support the education of the young people in our local community.

I have worked here for ten years in various leadership roles and I know we are much more than simply a school that has consistently been in the top 5% nationally for Student Progress for the past seven years.

We represent our local community as a diverse and inclusive Academy, welcoming anyone from any background, any race or any religion to join us and be a success."

We are also much more than a school that received an ‘Outstanding’ rating from Ofsted in November 2023, reaffirming our previous Outstanding rating in 2011.

We represent our local community as a diverse and inclusive Academy, welcoming anyone from any background, any race or any religion to join us and be a success.

We believe that education is the key to social mobility and every student has the right to an exceptional education. We work tirelessly to ensure that students are supported and challenged to be the best they can be.

We are a small school and our leaders pride ourselves on knowing each student as an individual. This personal approach, and care about every student, is something larger schools cannot offer and we feel it adds to our uniqueness as a school.

We are a small school and our leaders pride ourselves on knowing each student as an individual."

Our expert teachers and associate staff at the Academy ensure we have a purposeful and positive working environment, consistently, every single day.

We have high expectations of student behaviour and ensure we always have a culture of respect. Our teaching and learning pedagogy is based on the latest research, and our highly skilled teachers know exactly how to ensure all students make excellent progress. This especially includes disadvantaged students and students with SEND. Nationally, these groups do not achieve as well as their peers, but at Harris Dulwich Boys we are leading the way in bucking that trend.

Students will leave us with the Master Key to their future, allowing them to unlock any doors they encounter. They get this by achieving excellent academic outcomes and developing as Active Citizens, making positive contributions to their local, national and even global community they live in.

Whatever your purpose for visiting I hope you find everything you want. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Academy.

Chris Brett, Principal

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Stronger as a team

When a student joins our academy some will already be high-fliers, others will be good all-rounders and some will face significant and individual challenges. Each student will already have a unique personality, gift and character that we will develop further by working together. I have made it clear to everyone at the Academy that we are stronger as a team than a group of individuals, and that by pulling in the same direction we will achieve great things.

We encourage our students to be critical thinkers and promote these skills throughout the curriculum.  A student at Harris Boys' Academy will learn how to engage critically with foreign affairs, religion and society, issues of citizenship and the media, so they acquire the skills, and recognise the value of, thinking for yourself and thinking in a well-reasoned manner. This feeds into our desire to leave our students with the ability to apply these same skills to any context, for example, whether they are being subject to peer pressure, or being actively targeted by extremist ideologies.

Bringing learning alive

• Offering a full, broad and balanced curriculum, and helping every student find something he excels at; 
• Keeping class sizes as small as possible, and employing teachers who make learning fun and engaging; 
• Giving support to students who need it through extra tuition in literacy and numeracy; 
• Offering a range of specialised courses for our Most Able students; 
• Setting regular homework - for Year 7 students this will usually be two or three subjects per night; 
• Encouraging debate, participation, and a spirit of enquiry.

Active Citizenship

Active Citizenship’ is a vital part of the ‘Master Key’ that will unlock opportunities to students in future.

Active Citizenship is about students becoming better people and making a difference to their community on a local, national and global scale. Visit our Vision and Values page to read more about what we mean by Active Citizenship and the key character traits (confidence, curiosity, respect, resilience, ambition) that we encourage all our students to develop.

Clear expectations

Children learn best when their school environment is safe, inclusive and welcoming. We have a culture of mutual respect between students and staff, and zero tolerance of bullying in any form.

We have a proven track record of getting the best from all our students, reinforced by very clear expectations regarding student conduct, manners, uniform and behaviour which are non-negotiable and consistently enforced across the Academy. We believe that success occurs in a framework of high expectations, whilst also acknowledging that mistakes provide valuable learning opportunities too.

This results in our students constructively engaging with resilience-building activities and a positive learning environment where students do not judge or discriminate against one another.  We also support our students in challenging their own preconceptions as part of being meta-cognitive learners and ‘thinking about their thinking’. 

This is a school at which every student has the chance to find his own unique path to success, where everyone is aware of their rights and responsibilities towards themselves and others, and I look forward to welcoming you in person, so you can experience our Academy for yourself.