Southdown Nursery and Forest School

The school occupies the Gervays Hall and Garden property, which is leased to the school by the Gervays Hall Trust. The trust was established and hall built in 1933 for �the use in education and recreation of the people of the parish of Steyning and Ashurst�. Originally the school was a �Dame�s� school for primary school-age children in the large house and garden at the southern end of Kings Barn Villas. It moved into the Gervays Hall in the 1960s. The school was extended and a nursery added, so that by the 1990s numbers attending the school increased to 50. In 1999, parent power intervened to prevent the nursery from closing and The Southdown School Trust was formed. Donations, fundraising and voluntary work by parents resulted in the removal of a temporary classroom and the refurbishment of the hall and garden to enable it to open as a nursery for the September term 2000.