Our school is in the heart of the Royal Signals Camp in Blandford, enjoying an extremely safe and friendly environment for the children and extensive grounds for sports and playtime.
Our unique situation means that many of our pupils change schools frequently and ensuring that every child settles in quickly and happily, both educationally and socially, is of high priority.
We have completed a reorganisation to become a primary school catering for children aged 4 to 11. This is both an exciting and challenging time. It is giving us a chance to review what we offer and extend some of our provision to include things like French, music lessons and residential trips into the curriculum.
We welcome parents into the school, believing that positive interaction between teachers and parents benefits the children. Confidence in a school comes from knowing and understanding what is happening within it. We hope you will extend your knowledge through contact and discussion with members of the staff and myself and take advantage of the occasions for consultation. It is important that mutual understanding and trust should be the basis of our shared responsibility.
Downlands School has a friendly, family atmosphere and an open door policy. We aim to be at the heart of our community and to prepare our pupils to become confident & responsible adults. Our staff are committed to providing the best possible education for every individual child and encourage an enthusiastic desire for learning.
We look forward to meeting you and to showing you the opportunities and facilities that Downlands Community School has to offer. Some of our Governors are pictured below. All suggestions put forward to the Governors are considered so please let us know your views either by Email to the school office (office@downlands.dorset.sch.uk) or by using the red suggestion box by the school office.
AIMS AT DOWNLANDS SCHOOL
This is the long term vision of the Governors and Staff for our school.
The long term plan for our school is set out in the five areas that we feel are important to consider, when creating conditions for optimal learning – the ethos, the community, the premises and environment, the management and the curriculum.
ETHOS
We believe our school should be a happy, caring and safe place, where our pupils and our staff can achieve their full potential by showing respect and understanding for each other. We want to ensure that children are offered challenging tasks within a climate where risk-taking is encouraged.
COMMUNITY
We aim to make our school an active part of the community and make the community play an active role in school. We want to work in partnership with other services on camp to provide the best service possible to the community. We want to provide an education that takes account of the context of life inside a military community.
ENVIRONMENT
The school environment should be safe, bright and welcoming. It should help towards building a positive climate. Both the indoor and outdoor environments should provide stimulating learning opportunities for our children. We aim to offer good resources throughout the school that will help our children to become independent learners.
MANAGEMENT
We want our school to have high quality learning and teaching and good leadership. We want to work closely with all stakeholders in the school. We want to be forward thinking in our approach and establish a positive team spirit.
CURRICULUM
We want our children to learn and achieve high standards through a broad and balanced curriculum. It should offer motivation and challenges, be delivered in creative ways and take account of the context of the school. We want our children to develop a thirst for learning and to encourage them to become independent in their learning.