Who We Are
The Dean Close Foundation has one simple aim; to see every member of its community flourish.
The Dean Close Foundation is a growing, vibrant and diverse family of independent schools and nurseries, uniting around a shared vision and set of values. These spring from the origins of Dean Close School, which was founded in 1886 in memory of Dean Francis Close, Rector of Cheltenham and educational philanthropist. The Christian ethos of that original school continues today where the aim is that every child should be given the opportunities to flourish, underpinned by its core values of courage, contribution and love which are the guiding principles behind its educational vision.
The Foundation is an educational charity providing support to five schools and six nurseries within its group, creating a strong community that can share best practice, resources and a secure future. This brings many benefits to each school and nursery, and to each child and staff member within them, providing ambitious strategic leadership as well as creating a strong community that can share best practice, ideas, resources and a secure future.
Our community is everything to us, where we aim to grow and deepen relationships between the family of schools and nurseries, offering outstanding care and education from the first months of life into adulthood.
So, what makes Dean Close distinctly different?
One of the answers lies within the unique combination of distinctive values on which our schools and nurseries are built, combined with our chosen set of essential Skills for the Future. Our five key skills will enable pupils to have flexibility, resilience and confidence to enter the world of work, knowing the jobs they will do in 10, 15 or 20 years from now are, in many cases, ones we cannot currently describe or imagine.
Dean Close has a commitment to each child within the Foundation that they will be encouraged to live out the values as well as have the five key skills embedded within their curriculum at every level, effectively creating a little piece of DCF DNA for each child.
Who are we?
The Dean Close Foundation is an educational charity comprising five schools and six nurseries.
What is our mission?
We aim to provide ambitious and inspiring strategic leadership to broaden and deepen the relationships between our schools and nurseries, enabling them to offer outstanding learning and care, based on Christian teaching, from birth to adulthood.
What is our aim?
For every individual in the Foundation our aspiration is for them to flourish in every sense, developing their gifts and skills and fulfilling their potential.
What are our values?
To enable this to happen we focus on promoting and developing three core values: love, courage and contribution.
How do we support education and childcare?
The Foundation enables our schools and nurseries to be sustainable and gives us a broader perspective and a longer view.
Benefits of the Foundation
SCALE
This gives us breadth of educational vision. It makes our schools more sustainable and gives us a broad perspective and a longer view.
FINANCIAL SECURITY
The diversity of activities in the Dean Close Foundation portfolio has strengthened the financial position of its members and thus our ability to improve facilities, keep fees manageable and offer the very best to pupils of all ages.
FOCUS
With centralised Foundation business functions, the schools and nurseries can concentrate on looking after their pupils and delivery the best education possible to each and every one.