Talk Education Visit The Downs

Recently, we welcomed Talk Education, the UK’s independent school specialists, back to The Downs Malvern. Their comprehensive review captures life across our school, from classrooms to co‑curricular life: read it in full below.

Our view

Child first is the mantra here; a tweak to the curriculum, an adaptation to the uniform, an expansion of pupil voice – it’s all done with a view to benefiting the pupils who inhabit this charming, wholesome, friendly and energetic prep. And it’s this very same mantra that has shaped the bold and exciting plans to take The Downs to the other side of the picturesque Malvern Hills and onto the Malvern College site from September 2027. ‘Somewhat like moving house’, says the head, ‘all the elements that make the school special will move too’ – but with the added windfalls of some brand-new purpose-built facilities of its own and a bonus dollop of Malvern College’s bells and whistles on top.

Where?

In the pretty Herefordshire village of Colwall, the school sits on a 55-acre campus tucked along the western slopes of the Malvern Hills. The main buildings line a quiet residential street, which leads down to a cul-de-sac filled with more facilities and add-ons that is exclusively owned by the school – so there’s no passing traffic spoiling the peace.

The pre-prep and prep are located on either side of the quiet Brockhill Road – ideal, as it gives the youngest children some dedicated space of their own (and a pretty snazzy outdoor adventure play area to boot) while still allowing them to benefit completely from the facilities of the whole site. In 2024, The Downs expanded its provision to include a full time (49 weeks a year) nursery for children from the tender age of six months old.

From September 2027, the school will inhabit an area of the Malvern College campus, rather perfectly mapped out for the ideal balance between autonomy and the easy sharing of resources.

Head

Andy Nuttall arrived at The Downs in May 2022, fresh from his position as deputy head at Windlesham and having previously taught at Cheam School and The Banda School in Nairobi.

He’s a very likeable man, with just the right balance of fatherly kindness and a steely eye for detail and the impact of everything he and his staff do. Mr Nuttall is a major fan of the great outdoors and of what he rather charmingly calls ‘leaning into the landscape’. He brought chickens and quails with him from Windlesham (which were an immediate hit) and the school’s smallholding continues to expand; now featuring a duo of Oxford Sandy and Black pigs, a comical troupe of guinea fowl, a newly-planted orchard and a sizeable polytunnel. It’s a wonderfully low-key and positive exploitation of the surroundings and totally designed around the impact on the pupils. After all, the head tells us, his greatest joy is seeing the children’s ‘unfettered enjoyment of their environment and each other’.

In appointing Mr Nuttall, the school most definitely lucked in by securing the ‘value-added’ personified by his wife Polly. ‘All over it’ from day one according to parents, she ensures that each and every member of the community knows they are valued, personally sending birthday cards to each child from the head.

He is utterly at home here now, with an added layer of confidence gifted by familiarity but with his ever-ready smile and enthusiasm undiminished. Whilst of course there is an understandable nostalgia surrounding the school’s current site (it has been here for well over 100 years), the head is genuinely excited by the plethora of opportunities afforded by the forthcoming move and the protection and longevity secured by a pre-emptive reconfiguration.

‘Children here are happy to be themselves and to be valued’ says the head. ‘Our children know that they are accepted with all their individuality and that the school cherishes every one of their passions’. But he’s refreshingly aware that whilst there is so much on offer here, there must be an onus on the pupils themselves to make the most of their education: ‘They all understand that in order to make the most of everything within their grasp they have to turn up, to sign up and to get involved’.

Admissions

‘Gently selective’ is the term used by the headmaster – prep pupils will need to show two full reports from a previous school. But it’s as much about finding the right fit as anything else, and potential joiners can have as many taster days (or overnights) as they need in order to be sure – the head’s own children were clamouring to join the school after just the one. The admission process is nicely relaxed, and children can join at any point during the academic year provided there’s a space.

Academics and senior destinations

Classes hover at around 12-15 pupils and lessons are as hands-on as possible (even the youngest children get practical lessons in the science labs). IT is properly embedded into the curriculum (parental workshops explain how IT, coding, phonics and pre-prep maths are taught) and prep children benefit from specialist teachers for almost every subject, although their form tutor remains key in overseeing both pastoral and academic spheres.

Year 7 and 8 pupils have their own devices (their prep is set on Microsoft Teams); and everyone else gets to use iPads and laptops in class while parents can view reports and information on an online portal.

CE has become less relevant now, with many senior schools doing their own pre-testing. Mr Nuttall also believes that it is more constructive and less stressful to assess children in a more gradual way, helping parents to make the right decisions about future schools earlier on and reducing the pressure to perform on one day. So, the relatively new TDM Baccalaureate for Years 7 and 8 is perfect. Providing ongoing as well as summative assessment in this way allows the children to benefit from a far greater breadth of experiences and learning opportunities which better reflect the prep school ethos (whilst also giving a wider range of subjects more kudos). Feedback is a crucial part of the new structure, not just because it informs pupils what they need to do to stretch their learning to the next level (pupils are graded from bronze to platinum) but it also teaches them to take ownership of their academic trajectory, proactively addressing learning points, asking for support whenever needed and beginning to hone the skills of self-motivation that they will need at senior school. There are even prizes for the most thought-provoking questions asked of a visiting speaker, incentivising and inspiring children to stretch their ways of thinking.

The school has developed a framework centred around five key features of an effective lesson, which helps pupils understand what is expected of them and how each lesson will work, whilst still giving plenty of scope for individuality and adaptation from individual members of staff.

We were particularly impressed by the ‘Do Now’ approach, which has been used to great effect in the classroom since September 2025. It encourages pupils to make the most of every lesson by taking proactive ownership of their learning. Whether responding to a prompt on the board, reading, or continuing an ongoing task, pupils begin purposeful work as soon as they are seated – without waiting for instruction. Clear communication from teachers further reinforces this approach, helping pupils understand the purpose behind classwork and homework, and fostering a greater sense of engagement in their learning journey.

Collaboration, communication and problem solving are the order of the day, helping children of all ages to make the most of opportunities they are presented with as well as creating new ones. Breaking down problems of any kind, researching and exploring them, articulating the process and using techniques they have been taught to scaffold their own learning enables them to emerge confident and self-reliant on the other side.

A large number of leavers head to Malvern College which ‘happens organically because of our natural links’, says the head, but he is clear that it’s not the only option and that ‘we are in the business of preparing children to thrive at the school they choose’ wherever that might be. Mr Nuttall already has excellent relationships with many senior schools from his time at Windlesham, and he’s committed to strengthening bonds with alternative local options as well. Pupils always leave with an impressive haul of scholarships too.

Co-curricular

Children have access to a fantastic array of sports facilities that belong to The Downs (two tennis courts, netball courts, a large Astro and a sizeable sports hall), but they also get full use of Malvern’s too – including the swimming pool, and rackets courts – all of which will be even easier to access when they share a site. The cricket pitch boasts epic views of the Malvern Hills and girls’ cricket is something of which the head is very proud – plus there’s masses of football, netball, rugby and hockey.

The Memorial Hall (which is used for whole-school assemblies) doubles up as an events space and theatre for drama. The recent production of Peter Pan was incredibly professional, and photos of past performances lining the walls, including Cats, The Lion King and Les Misérables clearly show that, dramatically speaking, The Downs has set a very high bar. Dance too now has its own dedicated space thanks to the recent remodelling of the archive and props room, creating a dance studio with sophisticated cool grey walls and pale wooden floorboards.

The fabulously effervescent Lesley Hunter leads the charge in bringing music to life for every single pupil at any level at The Downs – and she is now operating out of a completely refurbished music school, which opened its brand-spanking new doors in September 2023. Individual practice rooms and teaching spaces are purpose-built and each door is adorned with a metal sign bearing a composer’s name, handed down from historical local school mergers and thought to be nearly 100 years old. Art is strong (lots of pupils’ bag creative scholarships to Malvern) and D&T opportunities run the gamut from woodwork to printing.

There’s no formal Saturday school – instead, children from Year 3 participate in the school’s hobbies programme. Pupils can take up everything from pottery to gardening, coding, fencing, badminton, cross-country, mountain biking, rackets and much more. There’s also one of the coolest activities we’ve come across on offer here – the opportunity to operate and help maintain the Downs Light Railway, which winds its way around the grounds. Children can learn to drive the train, help with repairs (the perfect way to get first-hand engineering experience), work on the track and even build carriages.

Boarding

There’s a small but lively boarding community with an ‘extended family’ feel and a very elastic approach to boarding, offering full, weekly or flexi options. Boarders sleep in one house, with separate wings for boys and girls and two super, newly refurbished common rooms, a huge kitchen for whipping up snacks and a TV and games room complete with its very own popcorn machine. Houseparents Mr and Mrs Warlow both exude warmth and reassurance which results in a calm and caring environment where vertical integration is superb.

At weekends, there are plenty of trips to the cinema, art galleries and theme parks – and boarders are given ‘boarding passes’ to dish out to day pupils, inviting them to join in for a fun-filled boarding experience once a term. Boarders seem to love having activities across the school in the evenings (summertime is a joy with the biggest back garden ever) and voting for their Sunday meal is a rather lovely touch.

School community

Pastoral care is excellent, and staff and matrons meet weekly to highlight who is doing well and who might need some extra care or intervention. Buddy systems mean that new children slip in seamlessly and there’s a wellbeing room where pupils can pop in if they need support or just a place to sit quietly. Togetherness is evident everywhere, from the boarding house to the family-style dining at lunchtime where children chat across cohorts and are served at the table by a Year 8 monitor, overseen by at least one member of staff. Houses are also another community to which every child belongs, and house points are gathered through merits and stars or as part of sporting, musical, artistic, or academic challenges and competitions.

The head feels that there is a very high level of trust within the parental body and that the plans to move the school site have been met with enthusiasm and positive interest.

Finally…

With a thriving nursery provision, outdoor learning opportunities galore, experienced and dedicated staff and a much-anticipated move promising added opportunities on the horizon, The Downs is at an exciting juncture. With the pupils at the centre of each and every decision, there’s a strong sense that the heart of The Downs is not in the setting but in its ethos, and transplanting that into the Malvern site may well be the educational match made in heaven. It’s a charming all-rounder that robustly, yet almost stealthily, prepares children for their next step while they get on with the vital task of just being children.