The Development Office

Thanks a Million

We believe that it is probably not since the time of Lord Winterstoke and Sir John McClure a century ago that the School received a gift of £1,000,000. This wonderful donation from a family of recent parents and grandparents was secured in 2018 and is to be split equally between Belmont and Mill Hill.

The Belmont portion provides 50% of the £1m fundraising for the new Belmont Sports Hall which the Development Office and Head of Belmont Leon Roberts have been tasked with raising by the start of the academic year 2019-20. The old building was destroyed by fire in November 2017 and work began in January 2019 on the replacement which will provide almost double the floor of the old one. I am delighted to say that at the time of going to print we have just passed £813,000 on the way to the £1m target.

I have had the good fortune to go to concerts and shows of all kinds at Belmont and Mill Hill over the last few years and to watch some truly breath-taking performances across a wide spectrum of music. The music department under the inspirational leadership of Kevin Kyle and Arijit Chakravarty is truly a flagship in the Mill Hill community. During 2019-20 the McClure Music School will undergo a complete refurbishment thanks to this wonderful gift.

Again, the McClure Music School refurbishment offers the opportunity for other donors to contribute at all kinds of levels. Individuals can support specific aspects (e.g. musical instruments or practice rooms). If you are interested in being involved in any way with either of these campaigns please get in touch.

A Better Chance bursaries

The opportunity to support the campaign is now being extended to Old Belmontians in the spring of 2019; there are chances to become Gold, Silver or Bronze medallist donors or to buy a brick on the Pathway to Fitness. On 8th June 2019 there will be a spectacular Ball for a Wall at Allianz Park; Old Belmontians and Old Millhillians will be most welcome at that.

At Mill Hill, Governors and Executives have decided to give a boost to music. The Foundation’s music is phenomenal.

Many alumni over the years have friends and contemporaries who benefitted from the Middlesex Scheme or its successor the Assisted Places Scheme. Since the Development Office started fundraising for its 21st century version, the A Better Chance bursaries, more than 40 pupils have benefitted from over £4m raised. We hear regularly from beneficiaries of the past and recent schemes with their stories of how their time at Mill Hill changed their lives. The superb “Where are they now” pages introduced in the last Martlet featured a number of such beneficiaries. The last year has seen recent beneficiaries achieve superbly in medicine, music and sport; long may it continue. After the fundraising success of the ABC Balls in 2016 and 2017 it was decided to do something different in 2018 so Friday 14th September saw the first ABC Fun Run. Half the pupils in the Foundation’s four schools took part running/walking laps of Mill Hill School’s wonderful grounds. At the end an intrepid group of parents, Old Millhillians and staff set off on a cycle ride. They completed the 50 miles to Newton just outside Cambridge where they were well fed and watered at The Queen’s Head, the wonderful pub managed by OB and OM David Short and his family. The whole event raised another £20K for the A Better Chance bursary campaign. There will be another ABC Fun Run on 4th October 2019.

Sam Bellringer Leaves

The first appointment to the nascent Development Office in 2005 was Sam Bellringer; he left the Office in October 2018 to join our software supplier Toucan Tech as their first Data Director. I was involved on a consultancy basis, jointly funded by the Foundation and the Old Millhillians Club, to advise on the future of the Club and to guide the Foundation on the structuring of the new office. I insisted that the key to the