Worth School

Worth School
Location
Crawley, West Sussex RH10 4SD
Information
Type	Catholic Independent boarding and day school
Established	1933 (Secondary school 1959)
Headmaster	Mr Gino Carminati
Deputy head	Dr James Whitehead
Chaplain	Fr Martin McGee, OSB
Enrolment	450 Yrs 7-13
Ethos	Benedictine
Old Boys Association	www.wobsnet.org.uk
Website	www.worthschool.co.uk

Worth School, near the village of Turners Hill, Crawley, West Sussex, England, is an independent boarding and day school for students aged between 11-18 years. The school is located alongside Worth Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in 500 acres (2.0 km²) of the Sussex countryside. As of 2005 the school has some 305 boarders and 150 day students.

History of Worth

Worth School (left) and Worth Abbey

Before Worth became a school in 1933, it was the country estate of Lord Cowdray. In that year, the estate, previously known as Paddockhurst, was purchased by the Benedictine monks of Downside Abbey in Somerset, who founded a priory and a prep school for boys aged 7 to 13 on the Worth campus. During the Second World War the school was evacuated to Downside.

In 1957, Worth Priory became an independent monastery, before becoming Worth Abbey in 1965. In 1959 Worth School, for boys aged 13 to 18, was founded , and Worth Prep School was scaled down year by year until in 1965 it became the Junior House for boys aged 11 to 13. Like many boys' independent schools of that period, Worth was exclusively a boarding school. Today, Worth School retains a boarding tradition, while also admitting day students. Co-education began at Worth in 2008.

In 2005 the school was one of fifty of the country's leading private schools which were found to be in breach of competition law over exchange of fee information in a ruling by the Office of Fair Trading. In the ruling each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared.

Houses

There are eight houses:

• Austin (Yr 7 - 8) - Junior House
• Butler (Yr 9 - 12) - Senior Boarding House
• Chapman (Yr 9 - 12) - Senior Day House
• Farwell (Yr 9 - 12) - Senior Day House
• Gervase (Yr 13 only) - Upper Sixth House
• Rutherford (Yr 7 - 12) - Junior and Senior Boarding House
• St. Bedes (Yr 9 - 12) - Senior Boarding House
• St. Mary's (Yr 12 only) - Girls Boarding House

House ties:

• Austin - Navy Blue and Yellow Ties
• Butler - Royal Blue Ties
• Chapman - Red and Royal Blue Ties
• Farwell - Black and Grey Ties
• Gervase - Pupils can wear their original house ties as it is a mix of all the houses
• Rutherford - Red (Austin boarders wear Austin ties)
• St. Bedes - Green
• St Mary's - No ties

Chapman, Farwell and Austin are the Day houses (Austin boarders go to Rutherford). St Mary's day girls go to the boarding house.

Voluntary Community Service

Worth School runs a wide range of Community Service in association with Worth Abbey. These include:

• Day Centre
• Age Concern Shopping
• Soup Run
• Amnesty International
• Recycling
• IT and Sport Classes for nearby Junior School
• Conservation

Alumni

Alumni of Worth School include:

• Onochie Achike (Athlete)
• Michael Aris (Academic and husband of Aung San Suu Kyi)
• Robert Bathurst (Comedy actor)
• Sir David Bell, chairman of the Financial Times Group (FTG)
• Michael Ellis (Businessman), partner and founder Newport Asia, LLC.
• Tim Hutchings (Athlete)
• Austen Ivereigh (Journalist)
• Sir Peter Jonas (Musician)
• Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. (Politician)
• Michael Questier (Academic and author)
• Michael Spencer (Businessman), founded ICAP plc
• Tony Tyler (CEO, Cathay Pacific)
• Nick Walshe (Rugby Player) Bath and England
• Nick Wesolowski (Musician;drummer with The Monochrome Set)
• Harry Enfield (Comedian)
• François Schiettecatte ( Computer innovator; leading developer of Wide Area Information Servers)

Notable staff

• Andrew Bertie