Downe House School, Cold Ash, Thatcham , Berkshire, UK

This top girls only boarding school was founded in 1907 by Olive Willis, its first headmistress, as an all-girls’ boarding school. Its first home was Down House in the village of Downe, Kent (now part of the London Borough of Bromley), which had been the home of Charles Darwin. By 1921 Down House was too small for the school, so Willis bought The Cloisters, Cold Ash, Berkshire, to which the school moved in 1922, and where it remains. It now accepts day pupils but is still predominantly a boarding school.

The  heart of this girls only boarding school is surrounded on three sides by ancient cloisters a beautiful 1930s dining hall, Upper School boarding Houses, the Concert Room, Design and Technology rooms and Art studios. Beyond this lie the Chapel, further boarding Houses, Music rooms, the Performing Arts Centre, the modern languages department, specialist science laboratories, a fully-equipped ICT suite, our historic Barn Library and additional classrooms housing the humanities, mathematics and social sciences.

Construction is already underway to build a state-of-the-art Centre for Learning, due to open in September 2018 with views on three floors over the woodland and Downs. As the biggest and most successful capital campaign ever launched by the Downe House Foundation, it will provide a multi-purpose innovative performance space, gallery, learning pods, seminar rooms, workshop and recital spaces and café. It has brought together parents, alumnae and donors in a transformational project that will touch the lives of all future pupils