Our Schools’ Public Benefit
Maximising our impact on local community needs
Public Benefit
Students and staff from our four schools deliver substantial public benefit to local schools and the wider community to further our charitable objects, by maximising access to our facilities, providing arts and culture enrichment, science outreach activities, career and leadership events, supporting subject learning in local schools, as well as taking part in volunteering and fundraising for local charities.
These activities have a huge impact with more than
16,000
people benefitting over the last year.
Here are some of the highlights:
- 11,000 people from the community took part in our arts & cultural projects, which included music, drama, and art exhibitions.
- 620 children and young people from local schools took part in arts and cultural programmes – including 285 who learned about astronomy at Bedford School’s observatory.
- We shared our careers and leadership programmes with 416 young people. These included our innovative Ready2Lead programme, empowering local students to develop and deliver Social Action projects across the community.
- A wide range of organisations made use of our facilities, benefitting 1,500 people.
- We reached 280 children in local primary schools through lunchtime and after school clubs, which included rowing and debating.
- Over the last year the programme supported 25 schools.
- We supported subject learning in 20 primary schools, providing science, maths, and language support to 870 students.
- Our staff and students volunteered in a wide range of local charities, schools, and care homes, benefitting at least 1,100 people and raising more than £35,000 for local causes.
More Impact
Our mission is to nurture potential and improve people’s lives. Our strategy, Together for Bedford, commits us to enabling more children and young people facing disadvantage to achieve their potential, to provide high quality education with an impactful bursary programme, and to maximise our impact on the community in Bedford. Find out more below about how we have achieved these aims in 2024-25.
Our schools deliver substantial public benefit by maximising access to our facilities and expertise to further our charitable objects. The largest area of public benefit through our schools is the provision of means-tested bursaries to help lower-income families pay all or part of their school fees. Find out more in the links below.
More children and young people facing disadvantage achieve their potential
Our Accelerator Programme aims to enable more children aged 0-11 eligible for Free School Meals to reach the expected standard. We also host Bedford Giving, a collaboration to bring together the whole community to support children and young people in Bedford.
High quality education with impactful bursaries
For more than 400 years, we’ve helped generations of young people in Bedford to unlock their promise and embrace their moment to shine.
Maximum impact on community needs
Each year, we award £1m+ in grants, giving a diverse range of community groups the resources they need to tackle issues and seize opportunities.