Our founding principles remain in place today

Downe House School was founded in Charles Darwin’s former home in Downe, Kent by the 30-year old Miss Olive Willis. Miss Willis was a remarkable and idiosyncratic woman with very strong views on how girls should be educated. She set out to create a school that would be different and that would meet the needs of young women by valuing and prizing individuals with a very strong sense of community.

She was of the firm belief that every individual mattered, that relationships between girls and staff should be ‘normal’ and that girls should be stimulated and interested in subjects outside the normal curriculum. She felt that time at school should be seen in relation to life as a whole and never as an end in itself.

Miss Willis believed that excellence, excitement and enthusiasm for the world around should be hallmarks of that school community, that teachers should not be placed on pedestals and that girls should not be expected to rush around in a feverish attempt to behave like boys. Wander around our calm and extremely happy boarding school community and you will see that those founding principles are very much in place today.