DOWNSIDE SCHOOL

Registered charity 1184700 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

Secondary education

Objects

FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT:1. TO ADVANCE ROMAN CATHOLIC EDUCATION IN THE BENEDICTINE TRADITION AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC FAITH IN PARTICULAR, BUT WITHOUT PREJUDICE TO THE GENERALITY OF THE FOREGOING, BY RUNNING A SCHOOL KNOWN AS DOWNSIDE SCHOOL; 2. TO ADVANCE EDUCATION BY PROVIDING FACILITIES FOR THE EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE PROVIDED THAT SUCH PROVISION SHALL BE ANCILLARY OR INCIDENTAL ONLY TO THE RUNNING OF A SCHOOL KNOWN AS DOWNSIDE SCHOOL IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ABOVE; AND 3. TO SUPPORT THE WORK OF THE GENERAL TRUST.

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · Religious Activities · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Somerset, South West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a net deficit of £542,869 for the year ended 31 August 2025, resulting in net liabilities of £728,051. The trustees acknowledge a material uncertainty regarding the school's ability to continue as a going concern due to challenges such as VAT on fees and increased operating costs, though they maintain the accounts are prepared on a going concern basis.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Crowe U.K. LLP. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Annual return filing dates (Charity Commission record)

Of its last 5 annual returns with a recorded received date, 2 were received after the due date: year ending 31/08/2022 (received 09/10/2023, 101 days after the 30/06/2023 due date); year ending 31/08/2021 (received 16/01/2023, 200 days after the 30/06/2022 due date).

Due and received dates as recorded in the Commission’s annual-return data; the data does not say whether an extension was agreed. Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Downside School (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Mike Randall — Interim Head (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Property (HM Land Registry)

1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/08/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~0.0 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (86% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 1.6% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• John Ludlowchair
• ALISON CLARE MARTIN FMAAT MBA
• Anne Barrett
• Catherine Mary Terese Hughes
• Jessica Mary Therese Ogilvy-Stuart
• Kieran Colgan
• Robert Jenkins
• Terri Wilcox

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Somerset

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with WELLINGTON SCHOOL 1837.

• WELLINGTON SCHOOL 1837 income £18.3m
• Town Close Educational Trust Ltd income £6.2m
• WARMINSTER SCHOOL income £11.2m
• DOWNHAM SCHOOL LIMITED income £104k
• GARDEN FIELDS SCHOOL ASSOCIATION income £24k
• BETHANY SCHOOL income £8.8m

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.