Public Benefit

Belhaven Hill provides Public Benefit in a variety of ways.

First and foremost it provides an excellent all-round education to some 125 boys and girls aged 7-13. The curriculum reflects mainstream Scottish education and there are special strengths in Languages, Science, Art and Music. The Learning Support Department assists pupils who are weak academically or who have a specific learning difficulty, such as dyslexia. Together with the provision of bursaries this support enables children who might not otherwise be able to come to the school to do so. Not only do they benefit academically but they gain hugely from the ethos and atmosphere of a close-knit boarding school and from the many sporting and extra-curricular opportunities that are on offer.

The School gives access (either free or for a minimal charge) to its building and sports facilities to a range of organisations, both local and from further afield. These include sports and musical groups from within Dunbar. It hosts an annual Cross Country Championships to which both other independent schools and local maintained schools are invited. Pupils assist with Pumpkin Patch Nursery’s sports day and during their final term those who have completed their exams do Community Work, e.g. distributing library books to the elderly and helping the rangers at John Muir Country Park or with house collections for the RNLI.

The School is let out during the Easter and Summer Holidays to a variety of Scripture Union, Church and other groups. They run low cost residential camps for youngsters from all over Scotland and Northern Ireland with the children often coming from deprived inner city areas. The rent charged is significantly lower than that receivable from commercial organisations such as language schools.

Each year the School undertakes a number of charitable fund raising activities. For instance, the collection at the concert at the end of the Summer term was in aid of the charity Scottish Love in Action. Belhaven Hill has undertaken to provide the charity with bursaries over ten years to enable a boy and a girl a year from their Dalit orphanage in South-East India to access higher education.

During the past three years funds have been raised for Charities as diverse as:

Love in Action

Cancer Research UK - Race for life
The British Legion Remembrance Day Appeal
Maggie Centres
Belhaven Parish Church
Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow
RNLI, Save our Soles day
Christmas boxes for Africa

The Fergus Maclay leukaemia Fund