Sydenham High School, GDST, is an independent day school for girls aged 4-18 years. The school was founded in 1887, becoming one of the last schools to be opened by the Girls’ Public Day School Trust. Set in the leafy suburbs of South East London, we pride ourselves on enriching young minds in a way that will endure a lifetime.
The school’s original Anglo Saxon motto, ‘Nyle ye drede’, means ‘fear nothing’ and underpins all that we do. Sydenham High is selective and diverse, welcoming girls with wide-ranging talents and backgrounds into a close community that is large enough to offer choice and flexibility but compact enough to ensure that no girl is overlooked.
At Sydenham High academic excellence goes hand in hand with pastoral excellence. Creating an aspirational environment for our pupils is one of our foremost aims and the provision of a first-class education is paramount. As a high-achieving school, we strive to ensure that every girl reaches, or exceeds, her potential by offering exceptional learning opportunities which harness individual strengths.
Self-belief and happiness, alongside a ‘can do’ approach to every aspect of school life, enable our girls to thrive and succeed and they leave us equipped with the skills and confidence to prosper in their future lives. We believe our pupils deserve the highest standards of classroom practice, as well as exciting, challenging, and enriching co-curricular opportunities, in an inspirational environment where they can be themselves and learn to be independent, resilient, and confident.
Girls at Sydenham High are ambitious and open-minded and possess the inner strength and necessary self-belief to outstrip all expectations. They are also well-rounded, happy, down-to-earth, and much more.
Providing a first-class education for girls was the aim of our founders in 1887 and remains our aim today. The outlook and opportunities for girls may have changed, but our educational goals remain the same.
Our school motto, Nyle ye drede, (‘Fear nothing’), lies at the heart of all we do. A Sydenham High education is centered upon the girl, where academic excellence and pastoral excellence go hand in hand. We want our pupils to have a ‘can do’ approach and inner strength so that they are enabled to thrive, succeed and be happy.
We are a school that is small enough to ensure that every pupil is visible so that her education is both aspirational and personalized. We want to empower our girls to face potential challenges with confidence. We want them to be resilient in all that they do so that in an ever-changing world they can respond positively to the ever-increasing demands placed on them, both at school and in their future lives.
We want to inspire our pupils to:
- Achieve individual excellence to be inspired and to inspire
- Be ambitious and outstrip expectations
- Embrace opportunities
- Be bold, fearless, and resilient
- Have independence of mind and the courage to take risks
- To have a strong moral compass and be accepting and respectful of themselves and others
