Worth School - History of Worth

History of Worth

In 1933, the Paddockhurst country estate of Lord Cowdray was purchased by Downside Abbey, Somerset, a monastic community of the Benedictine Order. John Chapman, Abbot of Downside, founded a dependent priory, named Worth Priory, on the estate, with a Preparatory School for boys aged 7 to 13. This school, set in the mansion house of Paddockhurst, was a junior school for the school at Downside. Having 60 pupils at foundation, numbers rose to 100 in 1939 when the school was evacuated and moved to Downside Abbey for the duration of the Second World War. In 1957 pupil numbers rose to 256, the school becoming the second largest preparatory school in the country.

In 1957, Worth Abbey became independent from Downside, and shortly after this an independent senior school, Worth School, for boys aged 13 to 18, was founded (1959). The former Worth Preparatory School remained separate from the senior school and was progressively scaled-down until in 1965 it became The Junior House for boys aged 11 to 13.

Worth School remained a full boarding school until the 1990s, when day students were first admitted, and two day houses were founded, one inheriting the name of Worth's founder, Chapman, the other named for its first Abbot, Farwell. Worth was the first English Benedictine school to combine the boarding and day traditions in this way.

In 2002, Worth School was established as a separate charity from Worth Abbey, with its own Board of Governors, with a lay Chairman. This was the first time that a Benedictine school in England had established a fully independent lay Board of Governors.

In 2005, the school was one of fifty independent schools in the country in breach of competition law. In a ruling by the Office of Fair Trading, these schools were required to pay a nominal penalty, and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments to a trust.

The school welcomed its first girl into the sixth form in September 2008. Girls were admitted into the lower years in 2010. A boarding and a day house for girls were subsequently founded.

In March 2009, the school celebrated its 75th anniversary, with a special mass for the whole school community in Westminster Cathedral. The school was welcomed by His Eminence Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor and the mass was celebrated in the presence of His Excellency Archbishop Faustino Sainz Muñoz, Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain. It is the first time that a Benedictine school has ever assembled for such an occasion at Westminster Cathedral. The school choir performed a specially composed motet by Colin Mawby, a former Director of Music at the Cathedral and one of Britain’s leading liturgical composers.

In July 2009, racing driver Henry Surtees, 18, had just finished his A-levels at Worth School, when he died in a tragic accident during a Formula Two race at Brands Hatch, Kent. The school commemorated this popular former pupil by naming a school social centre in his honour, and by a cross channel swim to raise £15,000 for Sussex Air Ambulance, the Surtees family's nominated charity.

In 2011, extended sports facilities were opened, including the school's first astroturf, and work began on building a new boys' boarding house. In the same year, extensive refurbishment of the Abbey Church, used daily by the school for a wide variety of functions, created a unique environment for worship and reflection.The design was commended by the West Sussex County Council Design and Sustainability Scheme.