Life as a Day Pupil
At Downside our Day and Boarding pupils are fully integrated and live side by side as members of one of our Boarding Houses. This ensures they have equal opportunity to share space to socialise and develop friendships, have changing facilities and a place to call home during the day.
There is a full programme of evening and weekend activities on offer. Day pupils are always welcome to join these school events, and many do often stay on in the evenings to take part in activities such as music concerts, plays and clubs.
Our school day fits the working day and with everything on one beautiful rural campus rushing to after school activities is a thing of the past. This gives the family significant flexibility at no extra cost. Parents tell us that this added freedom has a very positive impact on the quality of time at home. We also have minibuses running from Frome, Bath, Langport and Chewton Mendip.
HOUSES
The Housemaster/mistress is responsible for the day-to-day well-being of each pupil in their care, leading a team of tutors who take responsibility for each year group in the house. Day pupils play a full and active part in school committees and leadership roles in and out of the Boarding House.
Many of our day pupils stay as late as 9.00pm, meaning that prep and exam revision can be done in a supervised atmosphere, surrounded by other pupils. Again, parent feedback tells us that this is not only effective but helps home life for the child. There is an added option of enabling a day pupil to take advantage of the boarding benefits by becoming a Day Plus pupil which allows your child to stay at school overnight for two or three nights per week, where we have a boarding bed available.
It is an acknowledged truth that there is real value in the boarding experience – the development of independence, a sense of purpose and social confidence. Downside welcomes day pupils into the very heart of the place, but it is fundamentally a boarding school, meaning that our day pupils benefit enormously from constant exposure to this boarding ethos. Rather than offering ‘flexi-boarding’, which can prove disruptive to routine, we can provide Day Plus for your day pupil, whereby they can sample boarding life on regular days.
Furthermore, all meals, including breakfast and supper if required, can be taken at school by our day and day-plus pupils. So, you can relax and let our caterers take the responsibility of feeding a hungry teenager!
We’d love to welcome you to Downside for a private visit or Open Day. Click here to contact our Admissions team today.