Downham School was a private boarding school for girls based at Down Hall, a Victorian country house near Hatfield Heath, Essex.

Eleanor Louisa Houison-Craufurd was the first principal from 1932 to 1950.

The school focused less on education and more on preparing well-born young ladies for advantageous marriages.

[1] In her 2007 memoir, alumna Clarissa Eden described the school as "a fashionable boarding school ... orientated to horses".

[2] Down Hall was sold in the 1960s and the school closed circa 1967, the house becoming a conference centre.