Where Next?
Public Benefit
As one of the UK's largest independent schools, we take our charitable status very seriously, and we are always looking for new ways to enhance our public benefit.
The education of 1,550 pupils in the maintained sector would cost (at £5K per pupil per annum) £7,750,000. This is the amount saved by the taxpayer every year if our students were educated in the maintained sector.
In addition, we provide means-tested bursaries amounting to over £2m per annum. These are awarded to pupils whose families would otherwise be unable to attend Brentwood School.
"I am personally very grateful for all the support you have given me since we opened (and even before that during the planning stages).
It is refreshing and rewarding to work with colleagues who genuinely care for the good of the students in the town rather than merely his/her own personal agenda.
One of our key strategies here is to create an 'Independent School Feel’ and our links with Brentwood are crucial to helping us see what an Outstanding Independent School is like. Our challenge is then to see how we can strive to create something similar for our students to benefit from here."
Mr A P Scott-Evans
Headteacher
Becket Keys Church of England School
Our students take part in numerous community service activities, some as part of their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (253 students were involved in this last year). These students performed over 2,500 hours of community service activities, at an estimated value of over £10,000.
Below is a list of projects we have undertaken or are currently undertaking, with local state primary and secondary schools, independent schools in the South East and beyond, local businesses and national organisations, local charities and universities within the UK and abroad. Please click on the drop-down box to view:
Public Benefit Project List
- Partnership with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama providing access to a Saturday Music School for our younger pupils and children from the local community.
- The opportunity to take part in the Spikes Jazz Academy alongside young musicians from across Essex.
- Sporting partnerships with Saracens (rugby) and Essex County (cricket) and Brentwood Beagles (athletics).
- Partnership with Steinway and Sons giving our musicians access to 11 Steinway pianos.
- Partnership with Brentwood and Chelmsford Cathedrals to provide Scholarships (choral singing).
- Providing a place of worship for the congregation of Brentwood Cathedral when the Cathedral cannot be used.
- A national test centre for SAT admissions tests, where students from schools across the region (the majority from state schools) come to sit tests as part of their applications to universities in the USA.
- Our UKCAT and BMAT courses are available to local state schools at a very low cost (compared to if they sign up for an external course).
- The School provides application guidance and interview practice to MDV students from local state schools (e.g. The Brentwood Ursuline) and from schools in Essex (e.g. from KEGS, Boswells and Southend High School) all at no cost. The School helps students from local state schools with their personal statements for a wide variety of subjects, again always at no cost to them.
- Assisting with Oxbridge tuition for a local state comprehensive School (Goff’s School). Pupils attend for generic Oxbridge Critical Thinking sessions and interview practice.
- Invitations to Heads of Politics in other schools in Brentwood to attend meetings with politicians. Our senior academic enrichment society, the Sir Antony Browne Society, invites local maintained schools to many of its meetings with varied visiting speakers.
- Provision of Brentwood School Model United Nations (London-wide invitation to maintained and independent schools to participate in a two-day programme).
- Six Able and Talented Enrichment Days hosted by the Prep School every year for local state primary schools.
- Mathematics, English, Science and Chess Masterclasses for local Primary School children at weekends.
- Annual Science Competition for local Prep and Primary Schools.
- Annual Science Seminar (a one-day workshop) for local Primary Schools.
- Ongoing assistance to Grove House School, a local school for children with special needs (providing facilities, practical help, and classroom-based assistance).
- Providing room space for rehearsals for local theatre and music groups and a venue for productions put on by the Marlborough Players.
- Providing facilities for local sports clubs to use after school and at weekends. Our athletics track is used by local schools and we also host several fixtures so that other schools can benefit from its use. The Brentwood Ursuline and St Martin’s Schools are regular beneficiaries of our generosity and host their respective sports days on the track. Essex School’s FA also use our football pitches to host Essex FA Cup Finals and Inter-Counties fixtures.
- A mutually beneficial arrangement with Brentwood Cricket Club to enable Junior Matches to be played at the School.
- Providing meeting rooms for the Trustees of the South Weald Almshouses and the Chamber of Commerce.
- Providing Classics teaching to Upper Sixth students to prepare for public examinations at Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School.
- Inviting Sixth Form students from Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School to ‘Sir Antony Browne’ debating lectures, featuring visiting politicians, artists and philosophers.
- 3-year commitment to Westcliff High School for Boys to assist with their introduction of a Combined Cadet Force. This ran from 2013 -2016.
- A similar arrangement was in place with Shenfield High School to help them introduce a CCF to their school from 2017-2020.
The CCF Partnership has enabled Shenfield High School to set up an effective CCF. The SSIs have readily given their time to attend our Open Evenings and support our cadets.
Mrs Carole Herman
Headteacher
Shenfield High School
