Visit from Seocho-gu Governor Jeon Seong-soo

We were honoured to have Seocho-gu Governor Jeon Seong-soo, his team as well as officials from our local Banpo-2 dong office visit our campus, where he met with our Head of College and College Leadership Team. During his visit, he shared his experience with foreign schools from his time at the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) earlier in his career, his interest in British education, learned about our various community initiatives, committed to supporting our facilities expansion efforts to grow our community and experienced how our students learn through an extensive tour of our campus.

As a graduate of Seoul National University’s prestigious law school and graduate school, Gov. Jeon is a career civil servant who has served in Mayor Oh Se-hoon’s first SMG administration. In fact, he was in charge of attracting foreign investment and understands the important role foreign schools play in making Korea an attractive foreign investment destination.

Our Head of College Alison Derbyshire introduced the College, stating how it has grown significantly over the years, is currently at its highest ever capacity of students at 99% full, was ranked the #1 IB school in Korea and its graduates have gone on to some of the world’s top universities including Cambridge, Oxford, Columbia, MIT and Julliard.

We are also celebrating a major milestone this year – our 15th anniversary. Fun fact: Gov. Jeon said that the Seocho-gu Governor at the time of the school’s establishment in 2010 is an older colleague from SMG that he knows and highly respects.

Our Head of College shared the many ways our school actively collaborates with the local community, including the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE)-run international student exchange with a local primary school where our Year 4 students jointly visited the British Embassy, learned about British history and culture, and met with Deputy Ambassador Gareth Weir. Gov. Jeon encouraged us to further expand the partnerships with neighboring schools nearby.

Gov. Jeon was delighted to learn about how we reflect our values through our community partnerships such as our students' volunteering efforts preparing side dishes for a local elderly centre, He stressed that involving students in the local community was a “win-win” for everyone.

The two leaders of the Seocho-gu Office and Dulwich College Seoul agreed about the importance of continuing the local contribution to Seocho-gu community. We discussed ongoing initiatives aimed at further strengthening these community ties, including a joint event with the local churches and schools and the school participating in more local events, such as Sports Day scheduled for May. The Gov. even offered up the use of various district facilities for students’ learning, which we welcomed!

After an introduction to Dulwich College Seoul and an insightful discussion on our history, vision and strengthened partnership moving forward, Gov. Jeon enjoyed a special campus tour led by our Director of Admissions Helen Kim. The Governor showed great interest in our facilities, asking lots of great questions and exploring tiny spaces designed for young students, including the hammock he said he had never seen before in a library (in our award-winning Primary School library dubbed Inquiry Hub), Olympic-size swimming pool, the IB Centre made for and by students as well as our auditorium, where he got a peek at students performing. Upon spotting our famous slide known as the Dulwich Drop, he even took the time to experience the sheer joy of sliding down this corner of our school.

The visit was a wonderful opportunity to deepen our ties with Seocho-gu District, explore future collaborations, and showcase the dynamic, globally minded environment we foster at our school. We invited him and his team (education division) to Founder’s Day scheduled for 14 June, where they will get to see our greater community in action. It was a great pleasure hosting Gov. Jeon, and we look forward to continuing meaningful partnerships that benefit both our students and the wider community!