Wiltshire's Happiest School? Trafalgar at Downton Takes the Crown

A secondary school on the edge of Salisbury has come out on top in a Sunday Times ranking of Wiltshire’s happiest schools. The Trafalgar School at Downton was one of five schools in the area singled out after the paper worked through five years of Ofsted parent-survey data, from 2020 to 2025, to gauge how satisfied families are with day-to-day life at school.

The ranking is built from the share of parents who say their child is happy there, and Trafalgar came out on top across the whole county, with 97% of parents giving a positive answer. Staff at the school point to a decade of deliberate work on culture and pastoral care as the reason it’s landed where it has.

Deputy head Rachel Faulkner says the result reflects what staff already hear from families and visitors — that the school has a genuinely welcoming atmosphere, with older students looking out for younger ones and new arrivals settling in quickly thanks to that same culture.

The school, on Breamore Road, was rated “good” by Ofsted at its last inspection in July 2023. Inspectors described a school with a strong sense of community, clear and fair leadership, calm and focused lessons, and pupils who take pride in their work — particularly when teachers set high expectations. They also noted that pupils feel safe, a point Faulkner says is borne out in conversations with parents day to day.