The Dean Close Foundation has one simple aim; to see every member of its community flourish.

The Dean Close Foundation is an increasingly diverse and far-reaching educational charity with over two thousand people within its community, each with their own ideas and preferences. It might seem impossible to have one overarching aim or ambition for the whole Foundation and everyone within it, given this diversity, but we do have such an aim: that of Flourishing. It is our ambition that every individual, every team, each school or nursery and the whole organisation should Flourish.

The Foundation consists of a 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 our core values of courage, contribution and love which are the guiding principles behind our educational vision. The Foundation currently has six schools and seven nurseries within its group, creating a strong community that can share best practice, ideas, resources and a secure future.

Set on a beautiful 50-acre site on the edge of Cheltenham, Dean Close Senior, Prep and Pre-Prep schools are thriving independent, co-educational day and boarding schools with around 950 pupils from ages 3 to 18. Dean Close St John’s School in Chepstow educates a further 130 pupils ages 3-13, and Dean Close Airthrie School in Christ Church Road, Cheltenham, has another 80 pupils between the ages of 4-11.

The Foundation’s seven day nurseries form the Little Trees Nursery Group, and finally there is Dean Close Services Ltd which runs numerous courses, activities and events which make use of the numerous and rich resource of schools’ facilities.  The most recent addition opened in March 2025 in Tewkesbury, with the others spanning Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire and South Wales.

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.

 

BENEFITS OF THE FOUNDATION

 

AIMS OF THE STRATEGY

·       To safeguard and future of our schools and nurseries for the coming decades.

·       To maintain our foundational Christian ethos and our commitment to the Dean Close values.

·       To continue to offer a distinctive, broad, high-quality education to the widest range of pupils possible.

·       To develop our education offering further in response to the changing world around us.

·       To minimise the constraints, including but not limited to finance, that limit our freedom to develop as we choose.

·       To develop resilience, reduce and manage risk.

·       To ensure that, as a people-focused organisation, we attract, retain, develop and fulfil the highest quality staff.

·       To ensure that a lasting, significant contribution to our local community an dour partner organisations.

·       To minimise our environmental impact, seeking to reduce waste and promote greener solutions.