We believe that students develop best if they feel part of the community, and that the best way to achieve this is to create an atmosphere of mutual respect. We expect our students to do well; we never patronise them with low expectations.

Our small class sizes, our emphasis on Pastoral Care, and the wide range of extra curricular activities that we offer, all help to make students feel quickly part of the DLD community. 79 years of experience have gone into developing this approach, and yet in many ways it is about nothing more complicated than encouraging our students to feel as if they are genuinely part of the college, and not merely grist to the educational mill. Any system is only as good as the people who operate it.

Two thirds of the tutors at DLD were educated at Oxbridge and / or have post-graduate degrees and a significant proportion have been with the college for more than ten years, but it is not the professional qualifications of our tutors that set them apart so much as their energy, enthusiasm and their willingness to always go that one step further. We also recognise that tutors are not the only important people in a student's education.

"The level of pastoral support received by students from their Personal Tutors is exceptionally high. (Inspection report)"