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The College of St. Gregory the Great at Downside
File:Downside School crest.png
Location
Map
Stratton-on-the-Fosse
,
Somerset
,
BA3 4RJ

England
Information
TypeIndependent day and boarding school
MottoApud bonos iura pietatis
(For good people, loyalty is the lawgiver)
Religious affiliation(s)Catholic
Established1607 (in France)
1814 (current school)
FounderEnglish Benedictine Monks in exile
Department for Education URN123910 Tables
ChairAbbot Aidan Bellenger OSB
Head MasterDom Leo Maidlow Davis, MA, BD, STL
Staffc. 100
GenderCoeducational
Age11 to 18
Enrollment425[1]
HousesBoys:
Roberts
Barlow
Smythe
Powell
Girls:
Caverel
Isabella
Colour(s)Maroon   and gold  
Former pupilsOld Gregorians
School song"Patriae domus decorem"
Websitehttp://www.downside.co.uk/

Downside School is a co-educational Catholic independent school for children aged 11 to 18, located in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, between Westfield and Shepton Mallet in Somerset, south west England. It is attached to Downside Abbey. The current headmaster is Dom Leo Maidlow Davis.

The school

Downside is run by lay staff and the Benedictine monks of Downside Abbey.[2] The Headmaster, Dom Leo Maidlow Davis OSB, and several other monks work in the school as teachers and chaplains. Currently one Housemaster in the school is a monk. The school is controlled by trustees who are the Abbot and six monks from Downside Abbey.[3]

The school is divided into seven houses; five senior houses and two junior houses, with both day pupils and boarders in the same houses. Each house takes its name from the Community's martyrs or benefactors:

Plunkett House is the Junior House for 11 to 13 year olds. It is named after St Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh. The boys in Plunkett are housed in Ullathorne House (named after Bishop William Bernard Ullathorne) and the girls in Ramsey House (named after Dom Leander Ramsay). Powell House although in the senior school is a Junior House for all boys in Third Form before they join their senior house in Fourth Form. It is named after the Martyr Blessed Philip Powell, a monk of St Gregory’s at Douai.

Barlow House (Boys) is situated on the south-side of the main quad. It is named after the Martyr, Ambrose Barlow who was also a monk of St Gregory’s at Douai. The house colours are black and white.

Caverel House (Girls) was formerly a boys' house but was re-furbished and changed to a girls' house following the admission of girls to Downside in September 2005. Caverel is named after the Benefactor, Abbot Philip de Caverel. The house colours are green and white.

Isabella House (Girls) was founded in 2007 as a second girls' house in the senior school. The house is situated in a purpose built building in the south-east of the school grounds. Isabella is named after a Benefactor, Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain and Portugal. The house colours are gold and blue.

Roberts House (Boys) is situated in the north and west sides of the main quad. It is named after the Martyr and monk of St. Gregory's in Douai, St. John Roberts. The house colours are red and white.

Smythe House (Boys) is situated in the east side of the main quad, and is named after the major Benefactor Sir Edward Smythe. The house colours are yellow and black.[4]

History

Monks from the monastery of St Gregory’s, Douai, in Flanders, came to Downside in 1814.[5] In 1607, St Gregory’s was the first house after the Reformation to begin conventual life with a handful of exiled Englishmen.[6] 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.[7]

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.[6] 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.[8]

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 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 then, numbers of both boys and girls have been increasing every year. Since the opening of Isabella House in 2007, approximately 65% of the pupils are boys and 35% are girls.[1]

Air crash

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 eye-witness 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 spectating the cricket match from an embankment. The pilot and nine people on the ground were killed, with 15 others injured, ten of them seriously.[9][10][11]

Child abuse

The school entrance

In 2004, a Benedictine monk was jailed for 18 months after taking indecent images of schoolboys and possessing child pornography when he was a teacher at Downside.[12]

In January 2012, Father Richard White, a monk who formerly taught at the school, was jailed for five years for gross indecency and indecent assault against a pupil in the late 1980s. White, 66, who was known to pupils as Father Nick, had been allowed to continue teaching after he was first caught abusing a child in 1987 and was able to go on to groom and assault another pupil in the junior school. He was placed on a restricted ministry after the second incident but was not arrested until 2010. Two other Downside monks, also former teachers, received police cautions during an 18-month criminal trial.[13][14]

Department for Education officials were said to be taking an urgent interest in child protection arrangements at the school. Inspection reports refer specifically to seven monks who have worked at the school at different times and whose behaviour has been “a cause for concern”. The Independent Schools Inspectorate had previously criticised a lack of urgency in making improvements to child protection. The Charity Commission has also sent a compliance team to work with the school on this, which it is treating as “a high-risk case”.[15] The Abbot responded by apologising to parents and reported that 50 years of confidential school records indicated that four of the monks had faced police action, two had restrictions imposed on them, and one was cleared and returned to monastic life. A review of school governance was already taking place.[3][16]

The Independent Schools Inspectorate's most recent report, 2013, states: 'The arrangements for welfare, health and safety are excellent. The school’s safeguarding arrangements are much improved since the November 2010 inspection and, as in the advisory visit in November 2011, policies and practice meet the requirements in full. Thorough procedures ensure the safe recruitment of staff, and all the necessary checks are carried out...The quality of the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is excellent. This fulfils the school’s aim of developing high personal standards in each pupil in the light of the school’s Christian context. By the time they leave, their personal development is excellent...The quality of the school's arrangements for pastoral care is excellent.'[17]

Sports

Sport is played at Downside with members of the school competing in a range of sports from rugby, football, netball, hockey, cricket, golf, polo and even the Downside Ball Game, a variation on Fives played on a purpose built outdoor court. Sport is played most afternoons at Downside with every pupil expected to participate at least three times a week.[18]

Downside has historically been a rugby-playing school. There is a long-standing rivalry with Sherborne School, which often sees the whole school, 'Old Gregorians' (old boys/alumni) as well as a contingent from Sherborne on the sidelines.

Cricket ground

The cricket pavilion

The first recorded match on the school's cricket ground was in 1898, when the school played Lansdown.[19] In 1934, the ground hosted a single first-class match between Somerset and Glamorgan.[20]

Music

The Schola Cantorum (Choir) plays a major role in Downside's music. Not only singing for High Mass, the Schola Cantorum also holds public performances on a termly basis.[21] It has recently performed a concert of twentieth century choral music, including music by Britten, Lauridsen and the Chichester Psalms by Bernstein. The summer term is always ended with a musical. Productions in recent years have included Oliver!, Grease, Guys and Dolls, High Society, Anything Goes and most recently Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas.

Press coverage

In the late 1990s, the release of a number of Gregorian chant records attracted much attention, with some controversy over the association with the Virgin brand.

In 2002, Father Antony Sutch OSB, then Head Master, featured heavily (including front page of The Daily Telegraph) when he attacked the 'geek culture' - the government-imposed educational bureaucracy - that in his view is overwhelming schools and teachers.[22] His views on Catholicism and educational matters often attract attention in the media, and he has contributed to BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day since 2003.[23]

In 2003, Downside was the setting for a television show A Second Chance, in which a teenager from London, Ryan Bell, who had been repeatedly expelled from state schools 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.[24][25]

Notable alumni

See also: List of Old Gregorians

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

References

  1. ^ a b "Downside School". EduBase. Department for Education. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  2. ^ "School History". Downside School. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  3. ^ a b Will Heaven (20 January 2012). "Downside can emerge renewed from this crisis". Catholic Herald. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  4. ^ l "House Structure". Downside School. Retrieved 1 June 2011. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  5. ^ "Downside School". Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  6. ^ a b "Archives of Downside School" (PDF). National Archives. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  7. ^ "Sermon of Paul VI on the occasion of the canonisation of forty martyrs from England and Wales, 25 October 1970 (largely in Italian)". The Vatican. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  8. ^ "Downside". English Benedictine Congregation. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  9. ^ "Land Mines and Fighter Plane Crashes!". WW2 Peoples War. BBC. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
  10. ^ "Flying Accident, Downside School". Hansard publisher=. 18 May 1943. Retrieved 22 December 2012. {{cite web}}: Missing pipe in: |work= (help)
  11. ^ "THE DOWNSIDE DISASTER Eye-witness's Description". Catholic Herald. 21 May 1943. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
  12. ^ "Priest jailed for collecting internet child porn". The Guardian. London. 3 September 2004. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
  13. ^ "Richard White, Paedophile Monk Who Abused Boys At Downside School, Jailed For Five Years". Press Association. Huffington Post. 3 January 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  14. ^ "Downside Abbey reputation suffers after monks abuse scandal". Western Daily Press. 19 January 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  15. ^ http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/education/article3284960.ece
  16. ^ "Catholic monks faced child abuse investigation, school admits". The Guardian. Press Association. 14 January 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  17. ^ Downside School ISI Report 2013
  18. ^ Sporting Life Downside School
  19. ^ Other matches played on Downside School
  20. ^ First-Class Matches played on Downside School
  21. ^ "Music". Downside School. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  22. ^ Damian Thompson and John Clare (2002-10-07). "Prince condemns disinheritance of pupils". London: The Telegraph. Retrieved 2006-10-28.
  23. ^ "Conference". AMDIS. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  24. ^ Mary Riddell (2003-05-11). "Young, gifted, but black". London: The Observer. Retrieved 2006-10-28.
  25. ^ Amelia Hill and Kamal Ahmed (2003-05-11). "Who is to blame for Ryan's fall?". London: The Observer. Retrieved 2010-12-09.
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