Downside School
Somerset
Headmaster: Andrew Hobbs
Takes: girls and boys, aged 13-18
Approximately three-quarters of the pupils at Downside are boarders and more than 70 per cent are Catholic. Art, drama, design and technology as well as music are popular; concerts take place in Downside Abbey Church while pupils act in plays in a 450-seat theatre. Now the monks have left for Buckfast, the Chaplaincy team is assisted by a lay Benedictine community, the Manquehue community, who are based close to the school and offer support by leading Lectio Divina groups and assisting with the pastoral side of things.
