Downsend School
Downsend School is an independent school in Leatherhead for boys and girls aged 7 to 19. It has 537 pupils and room for 940.
1 Leatherhead Road, Leatherhead, KT22 8TJ01372 372197downsend.co.ukMrs Bex Tear headteacherAll details
Inspection
This private school is inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, not Ofsted. Its reports are at isi.net.
Results
GCSE results, summer 2025
73 pupils sat their GCSEs. Here is how they did against every state secondary in England.
All GCSE measures, year by year
| Measure | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | Surrey | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of Year 11 | 73 | 43 | 39 | – | – |
| Average GCSE scoreAttainment 8 | 61.0 | 61.7 | 59.8 | 50.6 | 46.8 |
| Strong pass in English and mathsGrade 5+ in English and maths | 77% | 88% | 85% | 54% | 46% |
| Standard pass in English and mathsGrade 4+ in English and maths | 99% | 93% | 97% | 73% | 66% |
| Core subjects scoreEBacc average point score | 5.48 | 5.63 | 5.40 | 4.54 | 4.15 |
| Taking the core subjectsEBacc entry | 53% | 47% | 54% | 44% | 41% |
Subjects
Results came out for 20 GCSE subjects in 2025. Each figure is the share of pupils who got a grade 5 or better, next to the average for state secondaries in England.
Strongest subjects
The small number is how many pupils sat each subject. Subjects with fewer than six pupils aren't published.
Every subject against England, 2025
| Subject | Entries | Grades 9 to 7 | Grades 9 to 5 | Grades 9 to 4 | England 9 to 5 | Rank in England |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mathematics | 73 | 33% | 81% | 99% | 53% | – |
| English Literature | 73 | 36% | 89% | 100% | 58% | – |
| English Language | 73 | 38% | 85% | 96% | 54% | – |
| Combined Science | 62 | 27% | 82% | 94% | 36% | – |
| Physical Education | 39 | 41% | 92% | 100% | 56% | – |
| History | 37 | 54% | 78% | 92% | 52% | – |
| French | 27 | 30% | 74% | 96% | 60% | – |
| Spanish | 23 | 26% | 74% | 83% | 54% | – |
| Social Studies | 23 | 39% | 65% | 83% | 54% | – |
| Geography | 21 | 29% | 86% | 91% | 51% | – |
| Statistics | 20 | 90% | 100% | 100% | 51% | – |
| Food Preparation & Nutrition | 16 | 19% | 69% | 100% | 52% | – |
| Drama | 13 | 39% | 85% | 100% | 60% | – |
| Art and Design | 12 | 8% | 58% | 100% | 58% | – |
| Music | 12 | 67% | 100% | 100% | 61% | – |
| Physics | 11 | 82% | 100% | 100% | 82% | – |
| Chemistry | 11 | 55% | 100% | 100% | 81% | – |
| Biology | 11 | 91% | 100% | 100% | 82% | – |
| Design & Technology | 11 | 18% | 82% | 100% | 50% | – |
| Computer Science | 6 | 33% | 50% | 67% | 56% | – |
In combined science each pupil gets two grades and we count the lower one. Rankings only include state secondaries where 20 or more pupils sat the subject.
Does every child do well here?
A good school does well by every child, not just on average. Each row compares two groups of pupils here. The grey marks show the same two groups across England. None of the gaps is smaller than the gap across England. When a group has fewer than about ten pupils, its figures jump around a lot from year to year.
At GCSE, 2025
Low-income means the child has had free school meals at some point in the last six years. A group's figure isn't published when it has fewer than six pupils.
Getting a place
Admissions policy not published.
Each council publishes its own figures on how many families applied and how far away the last child to get a place lived. We are adding councils one at a time. If you have a link to Surrey council's admissions booklet, send it to us.
Who goes here
Who the school teaches, from the latest school census.
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 537 | 613 | 634 | 661 | 606 | 513 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | – | – | – | – | 0% | 0% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | – | – | – | – | 0% | 0% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 33% | 10% | 20% | 32% | 23% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 1% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
The area around the school
Crime figures come from police.uk. The police record each crime at the nearest of a fixed set of map points rather than the exact spot, so “within 500 m” is only rough. House prices are from HM Land Registry sales nearby over the last two years.
Nearby schools
The closest schools, nearest first. Hover over a row to see it on the map.
| School | Type | Distance | Pupils | Ofsted | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Andrew's Catholic School | Academy | 320 m | 1,594 | Outstanding 2024 | – | Compare |
| St Peter's Catholic Primary School | Academy | 440 m | 433 | Outstanding 2024 | – | Compare |
| Little Downsend Leatherhead | Independent | 510 m | 193 | Not inspected | – | Compare |
| West Ashtead Primary Academy | Academy | 570 m | 266 | Report card 2026 | 72 | Compare |
| St John's School | Independent (grammar) | 720 m | 892 | Not inspected | – | Compare |
| Woodlands School | Academy | 720 m | – | Outstanding 2023 | – | Compare |
| Leatherhead Trinity School and Nursery | Church of England/Methodist | 0.7 miles | 350 | Not inspected | 26 | Compare |
| St Giles' CofE (Aided) Infant School | Church of England | 1.0 miles | 50 | Good 2023 | 56 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is Downsend School a good school?
We don't have enough published data to score Downsend School yet.
How good are Downsend School's GCSE results?
In summer 2025, 77% of pupils got a grade 5 or better in both English and maths. Across England it was 46%. Its Attainment 8 score, which is the average grade across a pupil's best eight subjects times ten, was 61.0, against 46.8 for England.
How many pupils does Downsend School have?
537 pupils aged 7 to 19 were on the roll in January 2024. It has 940 places, so it is 57% full.
Does Downsend School have a sixth form?
Yes.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- 1 Leatherhead Road, Leatherhead, KT22 8TJ
- Telephone
- 01372 372197
- Website
- www.downsend.co.uk
- Headteacher
- Mrs Bex Tear
- Type of school
- Independent school (Other independent school, independent schools)
- Phase
- Independent school, ages 7-19, with sixth form
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- None
- Local authority
- Surrey
- Ward
- Ashtead Park
- Constituency
- Epsom and Ewell
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 January 1929
- URN
- 125351 · LAESTAB 9366065 · UKPRN 10018715
Recent changes
- New KS4 results for 2024/25
Where these figures come from
- School details: Department for Education, Get Information About Schools, refreshed daily (this page rebuilt 13 September 2026).
- Inspections: Ofsted management information, monthly; latest publication in our data 27 August 2026.
- GCSE results: DfE key stage 4 performance tables, 2024/25 final.
- Pupil characteristics: DfE school census, January 2026.
- Neighbourhood: police.uk street-level crime, HM Land Registry price paid data, NaPTAN bus stops, English Indices of Deprivation 2025.
- All under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Full list and update calendar.