A welcome from Carrie Senior, Principal

Our vision is develop students with character, commitment, courage and conscience, who become academically and personally successful and lead in their community and beyond.

Welcome to Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich. We are an outstanding school in which students achieve excellent exam results across a wide range of subject areas.

Students benefit from superb facilities including modern teaching areas, state-of-the-art IT, sports hall, health science suite and a sixth form centre.

We believe that our responsibility is to offer excellent provision that meets the needs of all those with whom we work. We are proud to be an inclusive, multi-cultural community providing inspiration and vibrancy, safety and support. When we talk about our community, we mean our students, our staff, our students’ families, our governors, those who work with us and those who live in our surrounding area.

Aspire, Learn, Succeed

Our motto is “Aspire, Learn, Succeed”. This means that we look for every member of our community to be keen to learn, to be willing to engage and to be successful in their time with us. We want our students to be aspirational; we want them to think about what they want to do with their lives, to explore the world and think about where they fit into it, what they can get from it, and what they can offer as well.

Our curriculum continues to develop in breadth and rigour.

Strong values

As part of the Harris Federation, we have strong values which help to define our culture and how we do things. Our commitment to academic excellence, our determination to maintain strong values and to uphold the highest standards of behaviour and our care and support of our students are all clearly embedded.

Our curriculum continues to develop in breadth and rigour. For the vast majority of our students, a broad curriculum offer of strong academic provision is appropriate. For a small number of students, there is support available for a more refined range of options, including vocational routes as appropriate to the needs of individual students.

Broadening horizons

Our approach to learning enables students to see the relevance of their learning and experiences to the wider world. We try to give students as many different experiences and opportunities as we can – to broaden their horizons so that they begin to really understand and engage with different cultures, ideas and countries. We offer a wide range of activities and trips beyond the classroom each year and regularly survey students to ensure we are providing for their needs and for their requests.

Confident young women

In addition, our specialisms are a vibrant and fundamental part of our academy life and we participate regularly in Federation activities, our students working in collaboration with other high-attaining academies and enjoying a close relationship with our partner boys’ school.

We want our students to become thoughtful, caring, resilient young women whose aims are high, who believe in the importance of being life-long learners, who are equipped to lead their generation, who recognise that anything is possible and always strive to achieve their personal best. We encourage them to be studious, articulate and innovative team players who can adapt effectively to the many roles life will demand of them both now and in the future.

Students become resilient - able to learn well because they understand that mistakes are normal.

Resilient learners

We are immensely proud of our students and their achievements and encourage them to achieve their best in everything they do. However, to have a chance of achieving these dreams, students have to understand that, generally speaking, you get out of life what you put into – that excellent exam results and strong knowledge and skills do not come about unless you put a lot of effort into your studies, both inside and outside of the classroom.

We offer students the opportunity to become resilient learners, able to learn well because they understand that mistakes are normal and that the classroom is a safe place where we support each other and help each other to feel safe to risk making mistakes, and admit what we don’t know as well as showing what we do.

Sixth form

Our growing sixth form works in close partnership with Harris Boys’ Academy East Dulwich and in federation with the Harris Sixth Form, which has Harris Westminster as part of its expanding provision, meaning that we are able to offer a top class educational experience to every student, including our very highest attainers who are aiming for Oxbridge places.

Genuine choice

We hope that each of our students will leave the academy with genuine choices available to them. We believe that further education is a natural and immediate next step for most students; but whatever each young person decides to do, we want them to be equipped to be excellent in it. 

With high results and an understanding of how to live your life well – not only for your gain but for the good of others too – students do indeed have genuine choice and can be the best in their field, whatever that field eventually is.

Our aim is to achieve excellent standards and to fulfil high expectations. If you share our vision, please apply. We ask for your support to improve the life chances of our students, your daughters, and your partnership in making this academy the pride of the local community.

Carrie Senior, Principal