Downside School


Downside School is a co-educational Catholic independent school boarding and day school for children aged 11 to 18. It is located in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset, between Bath, Somerset, Frome, Wells, Somerset and Bruton in south west England and is attached to Downside Abbey.
Originally a school for English Catholic boys, it was established in 1617 by English and Welsh monks, living in exile at Douai, France. The monastic community returned to England in 1795, with both the community and its school initially housed in the Shropshire home of Sir Edward Smythe, a former pupil. By 1814 the abbey and school, had been re-established at its present site, in Somerset. Downside School became fully co-educational with boys and girls in all year groups in 2005.

The school

Downside is run by lay staff and three members of the Benedictine community based at Downside Abbey. It has a board of governors consisting of a chairman and ten others. Of the latter, one is a member of the Benedictine community. In 2019 the school and Abbey became separate trusts.
The school is divided into six houses; five senior houses and one junior house, with both day pupils and boarders in the same houses. Each house takes its name from the Community's martyrs or benefactors:
Monks from the monastery of St Gregory's, Douai in Flanders, came to Downside in 1814. In 1607, St Gregory's was the first house after the Reformation to begin conventual life with a handful of exiled Englishmen. For nearly 200 years St Gregory's trained monks for the English mission and six of these men were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929. Two of these monks, SS John Roberts and Ambrose Barlow, were among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
Imprisoned then driven from France at the Revolution, the community remained at Acton Burnell in Shropshire for 20 years before finally settling in Somerset in 1814. The Monastery was completed in 1876 and the Abbey Church in 1925, being raised to the rank of a minor basilica in 1935 by Pius XI. Attached to the Monastery, the School provides a Catholic boarding education for boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 18 years. During the 19th century Downside remained a small monastic school. It was Dom Leander Ramsay who founded the modern Downside and planned the new buildings, designed by Leonard Stokes, that opened in 1912 and now form two sides of the "Quad".
The 20th century brought about changes for Downside in the expansion of the school buildings and school numbers — over 600 boys at one point. Over the decades the number of pupils had been falling but development drives and renewed demand for boarding education has seen numbers rise. As part of the renewal, girls were admitted in 2004. Since the opening of Isabella House in 2007, approximately 60% of the pupils are boys and 40% are girls.

Air crashes

On Saturday 15 May 1943, during a cricket match between the school and an army team, two Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft appeared over the playing fields at around 3 pm. They proceeded to circle the fields, performing manoeuvres as they did so, an eyewitness describing them "diving over the field and banking steeply". In what would be the final pass, at around 3:20 pm, both aircraft flew across the cricket ground at an extremely low altitude, and then climbed rapidly to clear the tall fir trees bordering the field. The second aircraft appeared to clip the trees with its tail and nose-dived straight into the ground, crashing and bouncing, the burning debris finally coming to rest amongst the schoolboys watching the cricket match from an embankment. The pilot and nine people on the ground were killed, with 15 others injured, ten of them seriously.
In September 2013 a single-person aircraft crashed in the school grounds, causing the death of the pilot.

Child abuse

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, following investigation into the English Benedictine Congregation, including Ampleforth College and Downside School, amongst other institutions, published a report in August 2018. Ten individuals from the two schools, including monks, were convicted or accepted a caution for abuse. The report said that appalling abuse was inflicted on pupils over 40 years, but the schools tried to cover up appalling allegations. The Chair of the Inquiry, Prof. Alexis Jay, said that the schools for decades tried to avoid giving any information to police or authorities, with monks being "secretive, evasive and suspicious of anyone outside the English Benedictine Congregation", prioritising "the reputation of the Church and the wellbeing of the abusive monks" over safeguarding. After new procedures were introduced in 2001 following the Nolan Report, which recommended that abuse should be referred to the statutory authorities, monks gave the appearance of co-operation and trust, but in reality continued to cover up the abuse. A 2018 statement on the school's website embraced the findings of the Social Care Institute of Excellence audit, completed in March 2018, and released a revised and stringent Child Protection Policy. Andrew Hobbs, formerly the Acting Head and designated safeguarding lead during the audits and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, was appointed Head Master of Downside in September 2018.
In May 2020, it was revealed that in the time following the release of the 2018 IICSA report regarding child sex abuse at Downside School, the school had undergone significant major financial problems due to spiralling legal costs. In order to raise money, Downside was forced to sell some of its Renaissance-era paintings.

Sports

Members of the school compete in a range of sports from rugby, football, netball, hockey, cricket, golf, tennis and even the Downside Ball Game, a variation on Fives played on a purpose-built outdoor court. Sports are played most afternoons at Downside with every pupil expected to participate at least three times a week.

Cricket ground

The first recorded match on the school's cricket ground was in 1898, when the school played Lansdown. In 1934, the ground hosted a single first-class match between Somerset and Glamorgan.

In media

In 2003, Downside was the setting for a television show A Second Chance, in which a teenager from London, Ryan Bell, was sent to Downside to see if a 'difficult' student would do better in the independent sector. After excelling at Latin, biology, and on the rugby field, Bell was eventually expelled after being caught drinking.

Notable alumni

Alumni are known as Old Gregorians, after St Gregory, the School's Patron Saint.