The School is renowned for focusing on individual development. Small classes, excellent learning facilities, plus a 550-seater professional theatre, amphitheatre, dedicated music and art schools, floodlit astro-turfs, 25m indoor pool, climbing wall, indoor rifle range, dance studio and fully equipped gymnasium all help to nurture each child’s strengths and talents.

Dean Close is an incredibly busy place; recently the internationally renowned Carducci Quartet was appointed as Head of the Strings Department; both boys’ and girls’ senior hockey teams toured South Africa and Close-Up Theatre Company achieved sell-out status for the eighth time with Death of a Salesman at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In the space of one term, pupils have met Sir Steve Redgrave and Tony Benn MP; three girls’ teams have been crowned County Champions (U14 & U18 hockey and U16 netball); two brothers were crowned winners in the Pony Club Tetrathlon Championships; and the choir toured Venice, singing mass in the world famous Basilica di San Marco. All this alongside the many and various daily activities across the Schools, both academic and co-curricular.

Dean Close offers scholarships in Academic, Art, Design Technology, Drama, Music, Sport and All-rounder.

The main purpose of the Dean Close curriculum is to offer a challenging and balanced academic education, equipping pupils for the opportunities and demands of their future lives. We aim to stretch the minds of the most able pupils while ensuring that those of more moderate ability obtain the necessary qualifications and the greatest intellectual satisfaction of which they are capable. The Director of Studies advises pupils on subject choices at all stages of their progression through the School.

A committed common room uses a range of teaching styles to deliver a broad-based curriculum, with most pupils sitting 9 or 10 GCSEs. Alongside core subjects, there is a genuine breadth of choice from Design Technology to Greek and from Physics to Spanish to Drama.

Class sizes average between 15-20 and all classrooms, laboratories, library facilities and seminar rooms are fitted to the very highest standards with state-of-the-art technology. Coupled with an excellent teaching staff, this is what accounts for the 98 percent of pupils who obtain university places each year.