Public Benefit

Public Benefit

Millfield is committed to providing benefit to the public on a local, regional and national scale, with the main aim being to benefit children from a wide variety of backgrounds. The school does this by widening access through financial support, sharing facilities, resources and knowledge with local state schools, involvement in community projects, teacher development and offering life changing opportunities to disadvantaged children. The school also brings significant economic benefits. Millfield’s contribution to the UK GDP was in the region of £70m (2021/2022), with £36m contributing to Mendip’s GDP. The school supports in over 1,800 jobs in the local area. £7. 1m was saved to the UK taxpayer last year by students who are eligible for state education choosing to attend Millfield. 

More Accessible – Scholarships and Bursaries

Scholarships and bursaries enable access to the school for talented children who would benefit from an education at Millfield, by offering fee discounts of up to 100%. Scholarships may be supplemented with means-tested bursaries, to uphold our powerful principle of diversity that is the Millfield Mix, making sure that those children who would best benefit from a world-class Millfield education and outstanding opportunities are able to do so, regardless of the financial circumstances of their parents. Every child matters, and at Millfield we are passionate in our goal to identify the potential in each individual and do everything we can to ensure their success.

In the year 2021-2022, the total value of scholarships and bursaries was £6.6 million.

The Millfield Foundation is an independent charity set up to raise funds for the provision of scholarships for children at the school.

During 2021/2022 Millfield undertook the following activities to benefit the general public and local community:

Sport: 

We hosted 100 competitors for the Mendip Aquathlon, a swim run event held at the school aiming to grow participation in the local club and give everyone a chance to try out a race. This event involved swimming in the Millfield pool and running around the campus and was attended by individuals from the local area, Mendip Triathlon Club and staff. 

The Netball County Academy event was attended by many children including Woodroffe School students as well as other independent schools. Millfield also held the Academy Development Centre which included players from all around the South West. 

Somerset County Cricket matches against visiting counties have been hosted at Millfield, with players coming from schools across Wales, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, and Gloucestershire.  

Millfield were proud to host a group of players from Burnham & Berrow golf club who attended a 3-hour course for tuition, with all monies going to their chosen charity - cancer trust, Weston Super Mare. 

Millfield Rugby players joined up with the local club TOR RFC to boost their numbers to a full 15-a-side squad. TOR RFC were invited to join the U15 ten-a-side festival at Millfield and Sixth Form students provided coaching for the TOR team. 

Millfield were delighted to host the England Women’s Cricket Training Camp, aiding the preparation for the England vs South Africa Test Match, attended by the England and Wales Cricket Board. 

St Dunstan’ School used our athletics track for their Physical Education evaluations. 

Academic: 

Millfield hosted 180 Year 3 and Year 5 children from local state primary Elmhurst School, in March, for our Science Week show. The children found out about the properties of Liquid Nitrogen through a series of exciting demonstrations - freezing, smashing, balloons, indoor clouds, exploding dustbins and making ice cream. 

60 Oxbridge applicants from numerous local schools including Bridgwater and Taunton, Strode, The Blue School and Wells Cathedral were invited to the Oxbridge Preparation Day at Millfield. Guidance and support including Oxford and Cambridge interview preparation was provided. Numerous students went on to have successful interviews and applications to Oxbridge, with multiple offers.  

Millfield held a Business Enterprise Event at local state primary Brookside Academy over 8-weeks. Lower Sixth business students acted as mentors to the primary school children to help them develop their own enterprise stalls, during weekly visits. This culminated in an event held in Millfield’s cricket pavilion during which Brookside Academy children pitched their businesses.  

Millfield hosted its annual careers fair in March featuring 25 universities and 10 employers/gap year companies and careers advice organisations, with all local state schools invited. 

Millfield’s annual History and Politics Conference lecture series provides the public with an opportunity to listen to leading academics on a range of historical and political subjects. This year’s speakers included writer and historian Jack Dickens, lecturer in politics at Exeter University Doctor Sarah Cooper, the emeritus fellow in History at St Peter’s College Professor Lawrence Goldman and award-winning author Clare Mulley.  

Drama, Music and the Arts: 

Millfield Prep School’s musical performance of Disney’s Moana, hosted at the Millfield Meyer Theatre, was enjoyed by many local state schools including Horrington Primary, St Benedicts Primary and West Pennard Primary, as well as family and friends, with a total attendance of 1057 people across four performances. 

The Millfield Festival Chorus at Wells Cathedral featured the massed chorus of Millfield Choral Society and the Community Choir, with over 650 people attending free of charge. Donations were made to the Ukraine Crisis and Somerset Arts Therapies Centre.  

120 children from local state primaries Elmhurst Junior School and Brookside Academy have received multiple vocal workshops in the run up to the Freedom community choral project. 45 children took part in the concert held in June as part of a large-scale choir. 

Millfield hosted for free the 1st Round, Semi-Finals and Finals of the Pro Corda Chamber Music Competition. Schools in attendance included: Central Foundation Boys School, London, Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet; Independent: Sherborne Girls, Ipswich School, Brighton College, Abingdon School, Westminster School, Charterhouse School, Sevenoaks School, St Albans High School for Girls, Godolphin School. 

80 local state primary pupils from Elmhurst School attended the matinee performance of Millfield’s Year 9 Junior play in June. 

The Millfield music-led community choir rehearses weekly on Tuesdays throughout the school year, with 80 members of the local community attending regularly, free of charge.  

Millfield Open Show 2022, an annual art exhibition, is open to the public to enjoy viewing a wide range of 2 and 3-dimensional artworks. 

A selection of prints from The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers display was open to the public to view works from one of the world's leading printmaking organisations.  

The school’s Atkinson Gallery is open to the public Monday-Thursday, 9.30-5pm, during term time. 

Community: 

Millfield staff visited Jabberwocky nursery in Street, taking microscopes and equipment, to introduce a group of 10 pre-school children to the wonder of nature. They used the microscopes and made their own slides. 

Millfield are conducting Safer Recruitment Training over the summer with three local state schools: Hindhayes, Elmhurst and Meare. The training involves looking at how safer recruitment fits within the wider context of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, promoting the need for ongoing awareness and challenging inappropriate behaviour. This training benefits the schools as they would otherwise have to pay for an external trainer.  

On Saturday 25 June 2022, Millfield hosted it's Community Day for the first time in three years. The Millfield Community Day saw us welcome hundreds of people with learning disabilities, and their carers, onto campus for a day of fun activities, shows and events put on by students and staff. The day was hugely successful and enjoyed by many who look forward to coming to Millfield for the event every year and have missed it during the pandemic. 

Millfield held a Medics’ Day, a chance for students from local schools to attend sessions on preparing an application to medical school. Schools in attendance included: The Blue School, Wells, Bridgwater & Taunton College, Bradley, Sexeys, Strode College and Wells Cathedral. 

Enterprises:

Millfield were proud to host Hindhayes School end of year assembly and play in the Johnson Hall, enabling Covid safe attendance for 250 of their pupils and staff and 750 audience members, over three performances.

The Johnson Hall also provided a performance venue for 68 young people from the Somerset County Youth Concert Band which was attended by 150 audience members.

Millfield run a swim school on site, which is attended by over 500 children from the local area, providing quality swim teaching in top-class facilities.

The SASP Somerset School Games Dance Festival was subsidised and hosted at Millfield in July and saw 300 students from 10 schools across Somerset hosted attending the Meyer theatre.

25 holiday courses ran across both Millfield and Millfield Prep during the 2021-2022 academic year, including a variety of sports and arts activities, available for children from the local area to attend.

Subsidised rates were offered to a number of local athletics and hockey clubs to enable them to use our facilities in the evenings during term time.

Millfield Enterprises participate in the Government Holiday activities and food programme (HAF), through Somerset Activity and Sports Partnership (SASP), aimed at aiding individuals’ growth and development. We offered 65 places during the autumn half term and Christmas football courses, 76 children on funded places attended our Easter multi activities and football course, offering 450 places on the scheme over the summer on our Millfield Sense Of Adventure, multi-activity and football courses. SASP described our provision as ‘outstanding’.

We facilitated free weekly swimming sessions for Meare Village Primary School during the spring and summer terms, when they were unable to find availability elsewhere. Our Pool Manager acts as a qualified swim teacher for them in order that their Headteacher does not need to attend, benefiting 49 of their pupils.

With Somerset Cricket Board, we hosted ‘Super 1s’ at a subsidised cost – a weekly term time indoor cricket session, aimed at young people aged 12-25 with a moderate learning difficulty, or with a physical disability. The programme improves cricketing ability, and social and lifelong learning and leadership skills. More information here: https://somersetcricketfoundation.org/disability/super-1s/

We hosted the Brookside Academy end of year assembly, sport days and pool inflatable sessions as well as the Junior School’s Elmhurst Governors’ meetings.

Ultimate School Trip:

Millfield offered virtual trips to Kenya and Louisiana to all schools in the UK and abroad, free of charge via YouTube. Organised by Deputy Head Alexandra Haydon, these virtual trips gave children an informative virtual experience guided by education experts. To learn more please click here.

Millfield Brilliance Award:

School children from local state primary Elmhurst Junior School have been visiting Millfield to learn a variety of skills from Year 11 and Sixth Form students as part of the new Millfield Brilliance Award (MBA) initiative. They have been teaching the children skills in art, drama, reading and Chinese. 

The ‘Paired Reading Scheme’ involves supporting Elmhurst students with their reading. During the Spring Term, once a week a small group of Millfield students spent an hour at Elmhurst listening to the younger students read, discussing the books, and providing an encouraging and positive atmosphere for reading. Elmhurst students have increased their confidence and enjoyment of reading (especially reading to others), as well as developing their reading attainment. 

Millfield welcomed Elmhurst Year 5 pupils to the Fine Arts Centre to experience printmaking in our facilities. 

Millfield Drama hosted weekly 90-minute drama sessions for 16 Year 6 Elmhurst pupils, teaching skills and the creation of collaborative pieces of theatre. 

Languages teacher, Shuyi Li, visited Elmhurst Junior School weekly to host a Chinese Mandarin class with Year 5 children. The lessons proved so popular that they increased to two lessons per week. Children have been learning the language through singing, calligraphy, drawing and a variety of classroom activities. Millfield became Somerset’s first Confucius Classroom in 2019, a programme promoting Chinese learning to local schools and communities with teacher support provided by the Chinese government.