The Downs School is a comprehensive

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

in the village of Compton,

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is a state school run by

West Berkshire West Berkshire is a unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England. It is administered from Newbury by West Berkshire Council. History The district of Newbury was formed on 1 April 1974, as a merger of the borough of Newbur ...

Education Authority.

Overview

Starting at age 11 in Year 7, The Downs has approximately 1150 pupils, which includes 260 students in the sixth-form. The head-teacher is Chris Robert Prosser, previously Deputy Head-teacher before Valerie Holdey's retirement in December 2013. The school is located on Manor Crescent, with the nearest major town being Newbury 8 miles away. Other neighbouring towns include

Wantage Wantage () is a historic market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. Although within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Berkshire, it has been a ...

Didcot Didcot ( ) is a railway town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England, located south of Oxford, east of Wantage and north west of Reading, Berkshire, Reading. Historically part of Berkshire, the town is noted ...

Thatcham Thatcham is a market town and civil parish in West Berkshire, England. It is situated in the valley of the River Kennet east of Newbury, Berkshire, Newbury, west of Reading, Berkshire, Reading and west of London. The town has a long history d ...

and

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

. For the past 2 years it has been the highest attaining school in West Berkshire using the measure of 5A*-C

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

s including higher passes in English and mathematics.It is also the last remaining West Berkshire Authority secondary school to retain its own swimming pool after St Bartholomew's School removed its pool in Summer 2009.

Specialisms

The school specialises in

languages Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing. Human language is ch ...

. The school has exchange visits to France, Germany and Spain. Sports tours are also annually organised. Teams have been to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

and

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

. The Downs also has specialisms in science and maths.

Sixth-form

The school has a sixth-form centre of about 260 students. Previously located on the bottom floor of the Graham Taylor building (GT), It is located in the newly renovated old science block, after moving there when the new Science building (Hubble) was built. Subjects range from all the sciences to politics, economics, law and media studies. The current head of sixth-form is Mrs Anderson. Its results at

A-Level The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

are above average for a non-selective state school.

Notable former pupils

Tessa Kennedy Tessa Georgina Kennedy (born 6 December 1938) is a British interior designer, whose clients include multi-national corporations, royalty, celebrities, and European hotels, restaurants, and clubs. Her elopement with society portrait painter Domin ...

, British interior designer (b. 1938) * Joe Romanski *

Theo Walcott Theo James Walcott (born 16 March 1989) is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward. He represented England at the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2012 and won 47 caps, scoring eight goals. Walcott currently appears as a cl ...

References

External links

The Downs School website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Downs School Secondary schools in West Berkshire District Foundation schools in West Berkshire District Specialist science colleges in England Specialist language colleges in England