It’s official. On Monday 1 July 2024, Downe House went MAD!

Make A Difference – or MAD – Day is a chance for every pupil to make a contribution which benefits the local community. Some of our students ventured off-site to volunteer at primary schools, farms and care homes.

It was a pleasure to have so many pupils from local schools visiting us for the whole day – just over 200, in fact! They came from four primary schools (Yattendon, Bucklebury, Curridge and Beedon) and two prep schools (Brockhurst & Marlston and Elstree). 

Many Downe House pupils were also deployed off site at other local schools and venues, including Prior’s Court School (for young autistic people), Marcham Primary School near Abingdon, Thatcham Foodbank, one of our local Care Homes and the allotments in Cold Ash Village. A taskforce of our Sixth Form girls also visited local residents who live very near our school to help them with gardening and cleaning in their own homes and gardens. A large group of our pupils visited Radley College’s Countryside Centre which is a hugely valuable learning resource for people in Oxfordshire. 

One of the central objectives of MAD Day is to give our pupils the opportunity to develop their leadership skills by planning, organising and leading a wide variety of activities for our visiting primary pupils. Here are just some of the projects which our girls led, with the support of our wonderful teachers: 

3D Design: creating ‘Shooting Stars’ for the pupils to take home
Creative Arts:  Learning how to paint a portrait
Science: Learning about the solar system and completing various fun experiments
Cookery: creating all sorts of tasty treats!
Drama Fun: Being a Pirate for the day!
Languages: starter courses in Chinese and German
Maths Fun: completing a rage of number and other puzzles indoors and outdoors
Geography: observing and learning about nature in Downe House’s grounds
Swimming: developing swim skills in our own pool
Sport: a range of sports activities on our playing fields
Wonderful Woodlands: exploring Downe House’s private woodland and designing a nature trail 

MAD Day was a huge success and we have had some wonderful messages of thanks from those members of the local community who benefited from the activities and services provided by our girls. Many thanks to all involved, including the wonderful teachers and staff who helped to pull everything together on the day. 

MAD Day, which will now be an annual event, is one of many ways we encourage our pupils to grow into responsible, thoughtful citizens and to understand the true value of helping others with the gift of service. 

Click here to find out more about our work with the local community. 

Matt Godfrey, Deputy Head