Old Course also known as the Championship Course, and the nine-hole Aliss Course also known as the President's Course. The Ferndown Leisure Centre, situated next to Ferndown Upper School, has two heated pools, a sports hall, a fully equipped Gymnasium, Squash Courts and a rifle range as well as a power house suite. The Leisure Centre facilities (as well as the surrounding field) are shared with the Upper School. Ferndown Community Centre is one of the town's main attractions, home of the Barrington Theatre in the main shopping centre at Penny's Walk, which also includes a large Tesco supermarket and the local branch of the county library. Also there are large areas of woodland and heathlands around Ferndown including Holt Heath and Slop Bog. This heathland originally covered the entire area and up until the early 1900s covered many areas that are now residential. Also on many of the heaths and in much of the woodland there are many burial mounds and small ponds. However, recently Ferndown Heath, visible from King George V playing field, has been subject to several heath fires. Education Schooling in Ferndown, as in much of Dorset, is based on a three-tier system of first, middle and upper schools. Ferndown Upper School is a co-educational comprehensive school for students aged between 13 and 19, with up to 320 pupils admitted each year from its feeder middle schools in Ferndown, West Moors and Verwood. Ferndown Middle School (on the former Gorsemoor Middle School site) takes pupils at age 9 from Ferndown First School (on the old Ferndown Middle School site), Hampreston First School and Parley First School. The Ferndown school changes occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the original first school was demolished to make way for a small residential area named Old School Close, and former Dorset Council offices, now called Enterprise House and owned by logistics company Hoare Lea. The two middle schools combined and one became the new first school. Twin town Segré in the Maine-et-Loire département of France. See also List of King George V Playing Fields (Dorset) Ferndown Common St Leonard's Hospital, Ferndown Parley Common St Mary's Church, Ferndown References External links Ferndown Town Council Civil parishes in Dorset Towns in Dorset