This is the write up on the Good Schools Guide....hope I've got the right school...is it Radstock?
Head:
Since 2003, Dom Leo Maidlow Davis MA BD STL (fifties), who was educated at Downside, spent three years reading archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge and returned to his alma mater in 1975, teaching classics here for 20 years. He enjoyed teaching classics and enjoys being a monk: 'people talk to monks as they can't talk to others', 'monks are part of the furniture'. Latterly housemaster of Smythe House then novice master in the monastery. 'It is a great privilege to be headmaster' but it does sometimes make it difficult 'to get some daily meditation and to find time for reflective reading'. An intellectual, he has that precise way of talking that belies an underlying sense of humour and a constant twinkle in his eye. A delight to be with. Parents say he is 'unprepossessing at first but has abilities and a vision for the school; he's a good listener and good at delegating'. As we said in our previous guide, 'a thoroughly nice man, witty, intellectual, a typical Benedictine'
Father Leo, who has three headmasters watching him from the monastery, has changed quite a number of staff since his appointment; some were retired, and some were 'moved on'. The age of the common room is much reduced, and while it is not essential for all staff (men and women) to be practising Catholics, Father Leo admits 'that it is preferable'. 'A consultative kind of head' he runs the school with a board of governors, the monastic community and headmaster's council plus the staff. He is currently fronting an enormous change in Downside. 'School needs to grow to 400' and girls arrived in September, moving into the currently pretty sad looking Caverel House which is about to be transformed. Conversion work, if not in the pipeline as we write, will be soon and the boys are terribly jealous of what they think the girls are going to have. The school had a slight flirtation with girls at the end of the 1970s which was not a success and they are pleased that already some 25 girls have signed up.
Academic Matters:
Whilst in principle all do RS at GCSE, it is not mandatory, 'the odd Chinese boy not getting anywhere much with RS might be allowed to give it up'. Wide spread of results reflecting wide range of abilities. Over half the A level grades are A or B. English and theology departments swinging, as is science, following new appointments here. English, maths, history, RS and science are all setted and pupils are graded every three weeks. Full written reports sent home at the end of term and shorter report every half term. Tutors for all, and weekly meetings to keep 'em on the straight and narrow. Huge amount of dosh recently spent on new IT suite, trad teaching methods 'still around'. School on line, and nanny-netted. Some (3) teaching monks. An excellent and highly thought-of special needs department which can 'help pupils manage mainstream curriculum'. ADHD and mild Aspergers 'not a problem' but 'serious cases need serious treatment'; school manages well with tiny classes and masses of individual attention. Extra cost if need be for special needs.
Games, Options, the Arts:
Currently unbeaten rugby squad, school keen on soccer, hockey, cricket, golf, orienteering, fencing. Girls play hockey, netball and tennis. Splendid sports hall, squash courts, Astroturf and swimming pool, for some reason much loved by the younger pupils and not so much by those further up the school. Flourishing CCF, Ten Tors, regular summer camps in Cyprus and popular pilgrimage to Lourdes where boys remain on duty throughout the night. Superb art, dotted round the school, good showing in A levels, ceramics, 3D, school makes its own sets for drama.
Choral music integrated into the school – it is now cool to play, the school has signed up with Virgin records, jumping on the Gregorian chant bandwagon. Slaughterhouse Seven jazz band, popular and constantly on tour, raising money for charity, often abroad. Half the boys learn an instrument and all try one out free for the first term. Theatre productions recently widened to include as many as possible and they need no longer emulate the Elizabethans and can have real girls playing Viola.
Background and Atmosphere:
Benedictine Monastery transferred to rural Somerset from Flanders (via Shropshire) in 1814. Rather austere, imposing, 19th century granite buildings house the monastery, its guest wing and the school in close proximity. A goodly mix of not quite matching architectural styles greets the visitor, but the windows line up and the overall effect is grandly elegant (the grotty utilitarian stuff is tucked away out of instant view, thank goodness). Virtually the whole school is under one roof surrounded by lovely grounds and the monastery farm. Magnificent Abbey, monks worship there four times a day. Fantastic choir. World renowned monastery library (which we, being female, couldn't see) houses 150,000 books some of which aren't in the British Library.
During the 1980s the school boasted eight houses including some new-builds (hence the grotty jobs), and six hundred boys; the governors in their wisdom actively pruned the numbers of boys and now there are but five houses, one of them the girls' manor. The junior house, St Oliver's is separate from the main campus, and only shares facilities where necessary. All first year boys in the senior school occupy the same house, allowing boys to make friendships across the year before joining their main grown up house, which they choose 'by negotiation'. Delightful wide passages, imposing corridors and ecclesiastic architecture everywhere; you can almost feel the calm.
Terrific library, apparently about to be re-located, has a vintage encyclopaedia chained to the lectern by the door. Charming intimate 'old' chapel, which the monks used before the Abbey was built. Popular chaplaincy centre, where pupils can pop in for a coffee or a chat, usually staffed by a monk who will act as counsellor, but pupils can and do use it on their own. Slight pressure on chaps to think about joining up, monastery hosts taster weekends, and our guide said he was seriously thinking of 'giving it a go'. Spiritual matters pervade the atmosphere everywhere, with team photos alternating with religious pictures along the corridors – all pretty jazzy and not in the least oppressive. Every classroom has a crucifix. School motto 'Apud bonos iura pietas': 'For good men, loyalty is the lawgiver'. Pre- (first) world war uniform of black jackets and pinstripes; prefects wear grey waistcoats with jazzy hankies in their breast pocket (our guide said he habitually wore an orange one but spent our visit clad only in his waistcoat). Girls in burgundy tops and grey/black kilts. Food good, but not a huge range, hot buffet (curry) and salad bar. Most seemed to leave their stewed fruit and custard. Teaching staff, including the (teaching) monks, and pupils all sat together in a homogenous mix. All very chatty.
Pastoral Care and Discipline:
Lots of rules, starting with The Downside Rule: the priority of a Gregorian is duty to others. Currently over 80 per cent are practising Catholics. Father Leo is keen 'not to go to expulsion too quickly', but out for dealing, drugs testing on suspicion, stealing currently on the wane; bullying 'means children need to get noticed'. 'Chaplaincy centre a great help' plus usual selection of matrons and tutors. This is a caring school. Punishment for mundane offences is either 'gating' or detention; gating means boys have to report in to members of staff or prefects at certain times during the day. Spiritual development is taken seriously and there is a religious assembly every morning and evening in house as well as an all-school assembly weekly, plus weekly house service and religious meditation groups two or three times a week. When Great Bede is rung twice a day, all stop for prayer even in the middle of a lesson or a cricket match. Pupils bused into Bath at the weekend, standard exeats, can go home for the afternoon on Saturdays and Sundays. Good family feel. Sex education is always a knotty one with monks, but Father Leo is keen that pupils should 'be prepared to relate in a happy and mature way with the opposite sex'.
Pupils and Parents:
40 per cent or thereabouts children of old boys, in some cases several generations have come to Downside. Fair number of overseas pupils, from grand Catholic Europe (Austria and Germany well represented and Father Leo about to trawl in Vienna) to South America and Hong Kong. Foreigners either arrange their own, or have school-appointed local guardians. Social spread from aristocratic downwards and from very wealthy to those who have very little. Notable Old Boys include Sir Rocco Forte, the late Auberon Waugh, David Mlinaric, Richard Holmes (biographer), Lords Hunt and Rawlinson and Father Timothy Radcliffe (first English world head of the Dominican order).
Entrance:
By assessment at 9 and 11 for St Oliver's, by exams in English and maths; CE or scholarship at 13. References, school reports and recent exam results for foreigners, good English is essential. Regular feeders include Moor Park, All Hallows, Farleigh and Winterfold House, plus some further away.
Exit:
Almost all to some form of tertiary education including regular flow to Oxbridge, eight last year. Gap year popular.
Money Matters:
According to Father Leo, ‘monks live a hand-to-mouth existence’ but bursarial funds usually found ‘somewhere’ to help in extremis. Load of scholarships, but most for not much.
Remarks:
Trad monastic education for boys and girls aged 9-18, smashing children, smashing teaching and an environment second to none. Big and basic Catholic education.