Irfan Latif, DLD College London Principal

Welcome from the Principal

Thank you for visiting our website and welcome! DLD is the oldest and one of the most prestigious colleges in the UK, which, since its foundation in 1931 by Messrs Davies, Laing and Dick has built a strong global reputation among students, parents, schools and universities.

DLD College London is a 14-19 co-educational independent boarding and day school. We operate from a purpose-built campus in the heart of London overlooking the Palace of Westminster and the River Thames by the ultracool and dynamic South Bank. The Southbank Centre, National Theatre, and the BFI film theatre are all world-class arts venues on DLD’s doorstep.

We focus on each student as an individual, offering them the very best teaching and educational resources. We aim to build confidence in our students, enabling them to access a wide range of degree courses at top universities in the UK and around the globe. We are a school noted for its friendliness and informality and we treat our students as young adults.

As part of the Abbey DLD Group of Colleges, DLD College aims to maintain the highest standards of educational quality. Classes are small, enabling students and teachers to focus upon the most effective ways of learning. We stretch and challenge our students, motivating them and raising their own expectations of themselves, moreover, our learning community is supported by an innovative e-learning platform developing our students’ digital literacy.

The school offers superb, modern teaching accommodation 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, including the sciences and maths, our creative arts are transparently successful and our theatre, art and design, music and photography studios are inspirational places.

There are around 400 students at the school, some of whom are preparing for A Levels, some studying for their GCSEs, and some studying for BTECs and International Foundation Programmes. Our large sixth form enables the school to offer a wide range of subjects, supported by an award-winning pastoral system and wellbeing centre and high-quality university and careers advice. For students requiring boarding, DLD College provides over 200 state-of-the-art rooms in our bespoke boarding house directly above our school premises. DLD has an enviable range of co-curricular activities, sporting, cultural and social which develop not only the physical, but mental and spiritual side of our students.

We believe education is about more than grades: it is about an awareness of the world, about independent thought, about values. It is about the benefits of team sport, of culture, of academic ambition. It is about learning with enthusiasm. It is about growing up in a safe and caring community where all, staff and children alike, are passionate about what they do. That is what we aspire to and, I am confident, deliver. Clearly, we believe that we have something very special and unique here (we have recently won ‘Boarding School of the Year’ and the Special Judges’ Award for ‘Independent School of the Year‘), something that you can only experience and feel by visiting us at one of our regular Open Evenings or a personal visit.

After a visit to DLD, there are three things that people often say to me – how impressive and motivated the students are, how distinctive the school is and what an outstanding opportunity DLD presents. My expectation of all students is that they strive to become the best possible version of themselves – so that they leave the school without regret, having challenged themselves and having achieved goals and aspirations that they could once only have dreamed of.

I look forward to welcoming you to probably the most exciting school in London.

Irfan H Latif, Principal