← Browse Ashburton · Browse Schools & Colleges · Browse the directory
Welcome to Sands School, a democratic day school for 11 to 17 year-olds.
Sands School is so different from the mainstream, it can be hard to know where to start to describe it. It looks different – there is no uniform or even a dress-code for students. It sounds different – there are no clanging bells or unnatural quietness. But mainly it feels different – there is no “us and them” division between staff and students.
As a democratic school students and staff run the school through the weekly school meeting, making decisions together in a spirit of equality and mutual respect. There is no headteacher, everyone is called by their first name, meetings are chaired by students and the student council sorts out the day-to-day niggles of school life. In short, a democratic school puts students views at the centre of everything the school does.
Suggest an edit to this listing
Contact us if you have information about this listing Website link checked 22 October 2026
Be the first to leave kind words for Sands School.
Leave kind words
Photograph by Glavind Strachan Photography“One day two parsons started forth To walk to Cranmere Pool, The weather was not really hot, Nor was it very cool. They walked and talked for hours and hours As only parsons can, Until it seemed as though they'd trudged From Beersheba to Dan. At last they reached the pool and Lo! With ...”
Also on Our DartmoorChagstock Festival Ground — A historic gathering place on the edge of Dartmoor where community and landscape converge.
“Dwellers in the hilly parts of Devon, on Dartmoor and Exmoor, and in the villages bordering upon them, are as deeply imbued with faith in witches, as their forefathers were in the days when Alfred was king.”
Who wrote this?
Run a Dartmoor business, group or service like this one? Add yours to the directory, it is free.
Suggest a listing