Dean Close School is renowned for its family feel and warm welcoming atmosphere, with both staff and children happily enjoying being part of the School. The Preparatory School is based on the picturesque 50 acre Dean Close site and caters for girls and boys aged 7-13, both day and boarding pupils. There are three elegant Georgian boarding houses, one for girls, one for boys and one mixed junior house for younger children aged 7-10. Surrounded by beautiful countryside and close to Cheltenham Spa town, there is plenty for boarders to do.
An active weekend programme keeps them busy with visits to the zoo, activity centres, picnics, bowling and much more. Excellent facilities support pupils on their educational journey. In 2013 a brand new £4.5 million building housing a 330 seat theatre, 12 individual practice rooms, classrooms and IT suite was completed. Dean Close School also regularly makes good use of the excellent Senior School facilities a short walk across the cricket pitch.
School life is very busy at Dean Close with great importance placed on pastoral care, academic achievement and extracurricular experience. From the youngest pupil who joins aged 7 to those aged 13, there is an emphasis on the right combination of supervision, encouragement and initiative. Children excel within the broad curriculum and are able to move towards reaching their potential, whether in the classroom, the music school, on the games field or on the stage.
With a Prep School population of 310, the sense of family-like community is developed in such a way that it is possible for every child to know each other and to be individually known, valued and cared about. The Prep School offers five different scholarships for pupils joining in Year 7. These are Foundation, Academic, Sports, Creative Arts and Performing Arts and educates the Choristers who sing Evensong at Tewkesbury Abbey.
Boarding at Dean Close
Dean Close is very much a boarding school, with a full programme of teaching and activities all through the week and at weekends. The School has a healthy mixture of Day and Boarding pupils plus a small number of Flexi Boarders who stay one or two nights per week. With families from as far afield as Australia or as close as across the road, the School does the upmost to accommodate the different needs and circumstances of each individual family.
With its large population of Boarders, Dean Close buzzes with activity 24 hours a day and the Day Pupils enjoy the extra activities and life that a boarding school creates.
Every pupil over the age of 7 is accommodated in a House, which is their main social and pastoral unit. Between the Preparatory and Senior School, there are seven Day Houses and nine Boarding Houses, one of which is a mixed Junior Boarding House for children aged 7-10 and two are Sixth Form only houses.
