After graduating Chris worked for ICI Agrochemicals as a Metabolism Chemist before training as a secondary science teacher at Southampton University. Chris developed a passion for education through 12 years teaching science at secondary schools in Hampshire and Poole. During this time he gained experience of school leadership as a Head of Department and as an Assisstant Headteacher. From 2004 he worked with a team involved in setting up a consortium of schools to offer School Centred Initial Teacher Training and was responsible for the design and teaching of the partnership's Secondary Science PGCE course.

• Selection of International Conference Papers
• Downey, Chris, Kelly, Anthony and Brown, Alice (2008) Evaluating a programme to develop social and emotional skills in primary school students. In, ICSEI 2008: International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement, Auckland, New Zealand, 6-9 Jan 2008. , 13pp.
• Downey, Chris and Kelly, Anthony (2008) Utilising value-added progress data in the context of Every Child Matters. In, ICSEI 2008: International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement, Auckland, New Zealand, 6-9 Jan 2008. , 20pp.
• Downey, Chris and Williams, Clare (2008) Seeing eye-to-eye: Family SEAL; a home-school collaborative programme focusing on the development of children's social and emotional skills. In, ESRC Seminar Series 2008/9: the School as a Location for the Promotion and Support of Mental Health, Southampton, UK, 27 Jun 2008. , 30pp.
• Downey, C. J. and Kelly, A. E. (2007) "Data streams currently used in UK schools to inform accountability exercises", presented at the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement 20th Annual World ICSEI Congress (ICSEI 07), Portoroz, Slovenia, 3-6 Jan 2007
• Downey, C. J. and Kelly, A. E. (2007) "Are value-added scores getting the measure of school performance in the UK?", presented at the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement 20th Annual World ICSEI Congress, Portoroz, Slovenia, 3-6 Jan 2007 .