Millfield School A GSG School

Curricula

Cambridge Pre-U - an alternative to A levels, with all exams at the end of the two-year course.

Other features

Music and dance scheme - government funding and grants available to help with fees at selected independent music and dance schools.

Choir school - substantial scholarships and bursaries usually available for choristers.

Sports

Unusual sports

Polo

Equestrian centre or equestrian team - school has own equestrian centre or an equestrian team.

Fencing

Shooting

Sailing

What The Good Schools Guide says

Headmaster

Since 2018, Gavin Horgan MA (Oxon), formerly head of Worksop College. Born and brought up in modest-ish circumstances in SW Scotland, Mr Horgan got a full scholarship to Stonyhurst, so if anyone knows about the transformational power of education, he does. His career has taken him all over the world, notably Argentina and Sri Lanka, where he met his wife Alison (such is their love for that country that they have a house there).

Millfield attracted him with its willingness to ‘stick two fingers up to the rest of the sector. New markets want inclusivity, not necessarily traditions and acronyms,’ he told us. Now in his seventh year, he is proud of the common purpose he has created in this large organisation and particularly of the five values – ‘and not wet kindness either!’ – which ripple through every aspect of school life. ‘We praise by them, sanction by them and recruit by them,’ he stated, and indeed massive banners – Be Curious, Be Disruptors, etc – adorn the vast campus, lest we forget.

But there’s a lot else to be proud about: Millfield is a beacon for dyslexia, so Mr Horgan contributes regularly to Made by Dyslexia, a global seminar, and is the self-confessed go-to at HMC on the subject. Though not dyslexic himself, he readily admits to dyspraxia so not great at ball games (that said, he rises at 5.30am for a spot of cycling or a run, which sets him up for the day); he is nonetheless an accomplished athlete, given to ultramarathons in his spare time. The degree of self-knowledge, the lack of ego or self-deprecation when talking about things he is good at (cooking) or rubbish at (star jumps), and the passionate championing of the educationally disadvantaged made our 90-minute chat fly by – no wonder students and (most) parents love him. Too much of a figurehead, too focused on branding and marketing, and always off in Dubai or India were the sole charges we could uncover against him – but we were sold.

Entrance

Academically selective; school sets own assessments for year 9 (13+) (computer-based verbal and non-verbal reasoning) and interviews everyone hoping for one of the 200 places on offer, all of which can be done remotely. Places are offered anything up to 18 months in advance. Fifty per cent of the intake come up from the prep school, the rest from more than a hundred prep schools across the world: the largest feeder school is in Kenya, in second place Hazlegrove, just down the road. Forty places also available in year 10 and a handful in year 11 for ‘ambitious’ students wanting to go on to A levels.

At sixth form, numbers swell with an influx of 150 new students; entry requirements for normal three A level courses are minimum 30 points at GCSE or equivalent; IGCSE and level 2 BTEC grades have been given a numerical value. Some specific subject stipulations (7s for maths and sciences, 6s for modern languages and music, for example). For BTEC courses, a minimum of 22 points are required. This plus interview and computer-based verbal and non-verbal reasoning tests. In all cases, school looks for students who will throw themselves enthusiastically into the myriad opportunities offered and contribute generally to school life.

Exit

About 40 leave post GCSE; tiny numbers from other year groups. Post sixth form, students scatter across the UK (where in 2024 75 per cent got their first choice of university, a third of which were Russell group) and across the pond: 20 per cent head off all over the US, many on sports scholarships, attracting £7m in funding. Others take up places at specialist colleges offering creative courses, some straight into professional sport and about ten per cent gap years. Those we spoke to were full of praise for the school’s Futures programme.

Latest results

In 2023 and 2024, school published results for the top 100 students only, citing ‘much larger numbers of candidates’. No, we don't follow that logic either.

In 2024, 80 per cent 9-7 at GCSE; 70 per cent A*/A at A level (97 per cent A*-B). In 2023, 70 per cent 9-7 at GCSE; 65 per cent A*/A at A level (93 per cent A*-B).

Teaching and learning

The (soi-disant) ‘brilliance curriculum’ in year 9 is cross-curricular learning by another name. The youngest students are set for maths and languages (five on offer including Latin) but not for English, interestingly. Lessons in digital skills are timetabled and every student must have an iPad 8th generation or iPad Pro; Millfield has been ahead of the tech game for many years.

Two academic pathways lead to GCSE: green to eight and blue to nine. Those on the green pathway can choose BTECs in some subjects, do combined science but not necessarily a language; the blue pathway insists on a language and introduces the PQ (project qualification) baccalaureate (equivalent to one GCSE and accredited by a national exam board) for the brightest sparks who undertake a research-based project on a subject of their choice and present it in a medium of their choice such as film or artefact.

At sixth form, 25 subjects, four BTECs and a diploma in food and nutrition are on offer plus extra sessions to prepare students aiming for American colleges for their SATs. Lessons we saw used a mix of iPads and text books, all taking place in the large four-storey teaching blocks. Classes are small, max 13, conventionally set up with tables facing the front. A level biologists were being drilled in specific vocabulary to get them the requisite marks, proof of the driving up of academic standards, top grades, fulfilling of academic potential and the destruction of Millfield’s persistent (but mistaken) reputation as being academically lightweight – this last something which enrages and frustrates current parents (and indeed the head).

The airy library caters for the whole school – sixth formers use it during free periods, lower years for library lessons and research; all can use the silent glassed-in study area. Pretty well every subject came in for praise from the students we spoke to, one saying how pleased he was to be able to do German. New from 2024 is the Millfield Diploma, open to everyone, awarded at bronze, silver, gold and platinum but divided into three bands depending on age. Here students collate their experience and contribution across not just academic subjects and extension work, but also sport, extracurricular and any community outreach or involvement.

Learning support and SEN

Generously staffed department right at the centre of things in all respects, whose six full-time members of staff (two of whom are qualified assessors), three part-time, an in-house speech and language therapist and 10 visiting staff, including two educational psychologists, cater for the 40 per cent of students with identified needs. Support is provided in small groups within the department and not in the classroom. The underpinning philosophy is that by the time they leave, all students should be able to manage their various conditions and to advocate for themselves.

Millfield’s origins are rooted in dyslexia (or ‘word blindness’, as it was known); it has double the UK school average of dyslexics among its students but now accepts a huge range of neurodivergence, a term which covers it all, in the view of the head of learning support. Her team has seen a significant rise in ADHD, down to the pandemic and too much screen time, she reckons. No hard and fast rules about accepting students with EHCPs; they don’t see many and none currently on the books. Referrals come from teachers via houseparents, parents themselves and as a result of close liaison with the prep school and the screening of all year 9s and new sixth formers on arrival. Attitudes to learning support are as open and accepting as one would hope in a CReSTeD school, in fact ‘sometimes we have to turn students away and persuade them that they are quite capable of doing a language at GCSE!’ she told us. Parents and students we spoke to were happy with provision offered. And just to show that the school also walks the walk, all marketing material is written with built-in readability.

The arts and extracurricular

The days when sport was the only game in town (ha!) are long gone. Facilities, staffing and whole shebang are right up there with everything else Millfield has to offer. We were whisked round the dizzying array of theatre, art and music – amenities as least as good as anything in a UK market town – and delighted to see actors, dancers and musicians wholly engrossed in rehearsal. After Juliet was getting final tweaks before its imminent run, dancers were putting a new twist on a Beatles track and, in the stunning wood-panelled Johnson Hall, the most selective choir, Camerata, were practising a piece composed by and indeed conducted by Alexander Le Strange, commissioned for the school’s 90th anniversary in 2025. Quite what Millfield will pull out of its doubtless monogrammed hat for its centenary remains to be seen. The Millfield diploma encourages participation across the board as a performer or spectator, and although the standards end up breathtakingly high, everyone has to start somewhere, so informal concerts and so on pepper the (crammed) school calendar.

Art has some of the best studio and gallery space we have seen anywhere and examples of remarkable student work adorn many a wall, including the head’s study. A 28-piece modern sculpture trail winds through the campus and the head – not the current one but a massive rendition in Portland stone outside the theatre – is a popular meeting place. We loved our tour of the fine arts centre and the Atkinson Gallery, exhibiting a show of extraordinary student art which we were not allowed to photograph. An auction of the work of one of the school’s most gifted and already commercially viable artists was held at the time of writing, the proceeds of which support the school’s bursary fund which enabled her to come to the school – a fitting circularity. Product design also massive here: all the latest gizmos are offered alongside traditional skills and materials and taught by industry specialists. The school encourages a free flow of practitioners on its staff, such as new deputy head who is a former academic, and a new director of sport, a former brigadier.

Opportunities to get off the extensive campus abound, from DofE, Ten Tors, a whole programme of outdoor education, to trips for pretty well every subject and then some, such as skiing. CCF is relatively new to Millfield and is laid on with a local comprehensive; somehow typically, it has quickly excelled, representing the CCF nationally with three other schools at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday in 2023.

Sport

You name it, and Millfield probably does it – and very well to boot – which may be down to its founding by an accomplished cricketer. Still known for its sporting pre-eminence (but not just for that), Millfield has facilities and staff to rival some university offerings such as the 50-metre pool. It is nationally recognised as a swimming centre and has produced quite the roll-call of Olympic medallists such as James Guy and Mark Foster.

But 30 other sports are on offer too, some in combination, such as biathlon, triathlon and modern pentathlon. All the traditional games there are of course (‘The football lot get a better deal than the rugby lot,’ observed one student) but we suspect there is something to attract everyone, such as athletics, dance or sailing. What there is no room for is the life of a unregenerate couch potato, and representing the school in a team or squad, however lowly, is expected of every student.

Our tour of the new riding facilities did not disappoint – we watched a competent rider pilot her young horse round some sizeable jumps; Millfield has long been known as a top equestrian school where horses can also board. No fewer than ten football pitches, distant rugby posts, a full-size athletics track, several Astros and a nine-hole golf course where boys were knocking balls about at lunchtime – serious golfers go to 18-hole championship courses nearby – stretch as far as the eye can see, matched by high-tech indoor facilities for cricket and golf with the latest simulators analysing shots and strokes.

The science underpinning girls’ sporting success is closely scrutinised, from the study of injury to the redesign of kit and tracking of the menstrual cycle. Make no mistake, this is a school for sporting excellence with talent development, timetable tweaks and gym sessions running through it like raspberry ripple ice cream. The register of celebrated sportsmen and women is too long to be listed here, even if it does include Helen Glover and six OMs called up for the 2025 Six Nations rugby.

Boarders

Around three-quarters board – just short of a thousand students – in 19 boarding houses dotted round the edge of the campus. Year 9 are placed in dedicated single-sex houses to settle them in, grouped centrally to create a neighbourhood where they can get to know each other. One parent wondered if that arrangement suits the boys better than the girls, observing that girls ‘need older girls to sort them out’. After that, some kind of sorting hat allocates students to a girls’ or boys’ house in which they will see out their time.

We were shown a lovely light girls’ house with just the right blend of tidiness and homeliness where girls start sharing double rooms before graduating to singles; there is a mix of en-suites and non-suites – oh, and friendly house cats. Millfield’s relative modernity means boarding accommodation is better suited to 21st-century expectations than some older institutions, even if it lacks quaintness.

Full boarding – no weekly, no flexi – is the deal, something which leads to the occasional rumble of dissent from both students and parents; the upside of that being a panoply of activities, tons of people on site and a leisurely Sunday brunch plus essential down time at weekends. ‘All reluctance has been completely overcome,’ one mother said of her daughter. Students reckon that homesickness is well dealt with, ‘especially by our mates’, but parents could not fault house staff for the kindly eye kept on their children and stepping in when necessary.

Everyone eats in the stunning central dining hall where digital displays prompt diners to divide their plates into thirds – vegetables, protein and carbs. Vegetables are strategically placed first at each of several serveries to stop them becoming an afterthought. We enjoyed our roast pork and sticky toffee pudding very much, but the choice was huge, tempting and designed to appeal to all nationalities, dietary and sporting requirements; we picked up no complaints. A discreet eye is kept on dining hall attendance by means of regular tray counts. The usual supplies of fruit, cereals, toast and weekend pizza deliveries keep boarders fuelled in between whiles.

Ethos and heritage

Quite a new kid on the block and different from the start, founded as it was by a cricket-crazy educationalist, Jack (Boss) Meyer, who undertook to get six Indian princes into English public schools, one of whom found those demands very hard, as he was dyslexic. Millfield was the first school to adapt its teaching methods for such boys, and soon after, girls – very progressive, for the 1930s. Couple that with as much emphasis on sport as on academics, polo ponies, and a clientele which has stayed global from the get-go, and it is clear that few sacred cows would remain to roam the campus.

And it has continued to build, innovate and demand excellence in all areas. Flexible timetabling, intense individual attention from tutors and coaches enables sporting supremacy across the board – Millfield has been represented in every GB Olympic squad since 1956. This is a school which invites its students to dream big and which it makes possible for those of particular talent to go there, through a massive bursary programme.

The scale of the place is huge – 240 acres of grounds with boarding houses dotted around them feels more like a university campus, with buildings which are at best imposing and handsome, rather than drop-dead gorgeous. As an institution, it is not short of self-confidence or branding – the school shop boasts rack upon rack of sportswear and sundries in the unmistakeable school colours of blue, red and green; we even glimpsed an edition of Millfield Monopoly. Yet somehow none of that seems to have gone to its head and while justifiably proud of its successes, it feels surprisingly down to earth. A nod to its history lives on in its name, in its crest (the original private house was built by the Clark family close to a long-gone windmill) and Latin motto, loosely translated as success by grinding – riffing on the milling theme.

Pastoral care, inclusivity and discipline

Centre stage here and necessarily so in this big, busy, high-achieving school. First port of call for students is their tutor (also for concerned parents), but all are encouraged to find a trusted adult, possibly the spiritual director or counsellor. Self-help also promoted – the student mental health and self-care guide is particularly well resourced. We received positive answers to our questions about managing overload both from students and parents: the former – digital natives all – like the fact that everything is on one app but also that teachers help them prioritise, the latter that pastoral care is wraparound and that the school recognises that ‘over-training makes kids ill’ in the firm view of one mother.

‘Diverse’ was the verdict from students summing up their school: such is the global mix and size of the place that it genuinely feels as though anyone would be accepted, including the odd girl on the boys’ basketball team. Rewards (‘good newses’) and sanctions are generally fairly doled out; for minor things lower down the school, harder to earn higher up. Some grumbles about inconsistencies in sanctions from students and although the new strict mobile ‘no phone zones’ rule is bedding down, it has not landed well. Policy on alcohol reads sensibly, but ‘less vaping and drinking’ needed, reckoned one parent.

Pupils and parents

No longer the preserve of the exclusively rich and sporty, there is far more economic diversity and lack of pretension than Millfield’s campus might suggest, plus a truly global student body – a draw for many. The fact that as much emphasis is now placed on academics and the arts mean it can attract all manner of talent and all-rounders arriving by air or battered Land Rover.

Money matters

Scholarships in all usual areas plus chess, dance and product design are offered to a maximum 10 per cent, but school is justifiably proud of the £6.5m it devotes to its bursary programme, giving 100 per cent in exceptional cases. We met a couple of recipients: ‘Life-changing opportunities,’ they said. Good to note that any purchases from the extensive array in the school shop have to be approved by a houseparent.

The last word

Gone are the days when Millfield was the place for budding Olympians or dyslexics: it continues to offer all that alongside academic rigour and 100 per cent endeavour in enabling young people to succeed in any area. Strenuous efforts to shed a persistent myth by dishing up terrific results and success stories across the board create a mood of optimism as it counts down to its centenary, ready to weather any slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Special Education Needs

The Learning Support Centre (LSC) is located at the heart of the school and plays a key role in the lives of many of our students with SEN. Its purpose is to provide support and guidance for all students with learning differences across the senior school. Our aims are to educate students so that they can develop an understanding of their learning differences and become familiar with the strategies and adaptations they require to become successful learners. Additionally, we encourage and work with students to further develop their literacy skills, study skills and self-esteem as they work towards independent study and the achievement of successful GCSE, IGCSE and A level grades. The LSC works hard at building strong working relationships with a wide range of prep and other senior schools in order to facilitate a smooth transition for students moving to Millfield at 13+, 14+ or 16+. The LSC maintains high expectations of the students working within the department. The quality of relationships with students is regarded as a vital component in building confidence, rapport and mutual understanding as is the pace and style of teaching, taking into account different learning abilities and needs. LSC teachers maintain and share an interest in current research, training, techniques and resources in a constant effort to maximise opportunities and success for students and in their support and advice for fellow members of staff. Addressing issues such as motivation, organisation, work habits and self-responsibility are also regarded as important keys to building success. In the lower school selected SpLD students receive timetabled study support which is delivered in small groups in place of a modern foreign language. These groups are generally made up of a maximum of seven to eight students, often smaller. Students will work on their own targets as well as receive support with literacy attainment, revision strategies, study skills, etc. At sixth form level, the LSC continues to support students through small group sessions which take place during their private study periods. LSC tutors will help with the development of effective study skills, including exam and revision techniques. All students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning whilst having a support structure to assist them as and when necessary. The department is open during lunch and break times with at least one LSC tutor on hand to assist students who need help on a drop-in basis, who simply wants a quiet place to work or to complete prep. This facility is well used by students of all years. Students value the contact and support they experience within the LSC during their life at Millfield and feel at ease within its supportive and encouraging culture.

Who came from where