Discover the History of Our Founding School

Dulwich College was founded by Edward Alleyn on 21 June, 1619 with letters patent from King James I. An actor linked to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and an entrepreneur in the world of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre, Alleyn was a colourful and famous figure of his days. Alleyn decided to establish a school for boys in London that would provide sound learning, strong artistic pursuits and good manners.

At the age of forty-seven, Alleyn bought the manorial estate of Dulwich from Sir Francis Calton and decided to establish a school, which he called  "Alleyn's College of God's Gift", now Dulwich College.

Over four centuries, Dulwich College has established a tradition of inspired learning, genuine scholarship, and free thinking. The College has long been a pioneer in education. In the 1880s, Master Canon Carver introduced the "Modern Curriculum" to the College, and in the 1940s, the College embarked on the "Dulwich Experiment", admitting students on a needs-blind basis, based on academic ability alone. 

Today, Dulwich College is an academically selective boys' school, attracting students from the top 15% of the UK academic range. Having built a solid reputation for strong academics, inspired teaching and educational innovations. Its academic strength is matched by its broad and challenging co-curricular programme in sports, music, visual arts, drama and debate.

Dulwich College's vision is "to be an outstanding school inculcating in every pupil an aptitude for work, study, and a sense of service so they have the potential to make a positive difference in the world", and seeks to encourage curiosity, creativity, compassion, open-mindedness, resilience, integrity and a collaborative outlook and an appreciation of how we all benefit from living and growing in a diverse and inclusive society.

Nearly 400 years after Dulwich College was founded, Fraser White and Karen Yung began looking for a school in Shanghai that would provide for their three young children. They wanted a challenging and ambitious education that would prepare their children for the future, moulding them into confident and well-rounded young people. Beyond academics, they wanted a school community with the open-mindedness and intrepidness bred of international experience, a strong co-curricular programme and the grounding provided by venerable British educational traditions.  

Their search came up short. A serendipitous meeting with Graham Able, the then Master of Dulwich College in London, resulted in the idea of opening an international Dulwich College in Shanghai. Dulwich College International was born, the first British independent school to take its practices and ethos to China. Since the first school in Shanghai in 2003, the Dulwich international family of schools has now grown to 6 College and 2 High Schools in across Asia. Our students continuously achieve academic results that place them alongside the world’s best, while forging their own paths in making a positive difference in the world, staying true to and building upon our founding school’s vision over 400 years ago.