Prickett Memorial Awards

This registered charity (also referred to as the Prickett Memorial Fund) was formed in 1965 with funds donated in memory of Miss Ethel May Prickett, who from 1933 to 1957 was the second Headmistress of Mills Grammar School. She died in 1963. Her photograph hangs in the library and the plate underneath records publicly the existence of this charity.

Miss Prickett was a devoted teacher of French and led the first two school visits to France in the 1950s. Originally it was envisaged that the charity would fund travel abroad for educational purposes, but this function became increasingly redundant after 1982, when the Mills Educational Foundation began to do the same thing, and still more so when the Michael Sims Memorial Fund was established in 1987.

For many years in the 1980s and 1990s the fund was used to subsidise the French Exchange but, in 1996, the governors decided instead to use the annual income to provide a scholarship to a student leaving the sixth form to pursue the study at degree level of French (preferably) or of another modern foreign language. Their 1996 resolution lays down the procedure to be followed by the Headteacher and staff in awarding the scholarship.

The charity was re-registered in 1999 and later in the same year the Charity Commissioners issued a scheme to formalise its change of purpose.

The following Prickett Memorial Scholarships have been awarded:

1996 Marie-Claire Jenkins
1997 Jonathan Adam
1998 Timothy Baxter
1999 Katherine Wells
2000 Alexandra Pickering
2001 Richard Girling
2002 David Sleight
2003 Sarah Creighton
2004 Emma Fisher
2005 Henrietta Inman
2006 Celeste Small
2007 Charlotte Gaffer
2008 Kristin Mazurkewicz
2009 Rebekah Shoukry
2010 Lauren Dilieto
2011 Chloe Williams
2012 Madeleine Adey
2013 Florence Vane
2014 Sammy Fell
2015 Lizzie Green
2016 Francesca Auchterlonie
2017 Amy Ryder
2018 Molly Constanti
2019 Anna Brueck Seeley
2020 Barney Hopkins
2021 William Evans and Grace Lloyd
2022 Izzy Carter
2023 Joe Wakelin
2024 Gemma Thomas

The whole Governing Body used to act as trustees but since 2005, in a change approved by the Charity Commission, they now elect three trustees to manage its affairs. The trustees serve for three-year terms and meet once a year. They are not responsible for choosing who wins each scholarship, which is a matter for the Headteacher and his staff, but ensure that it is funded appropriately. The scholarships are awarded each September.

Chairman of Trustees – Mr Doug Stewart

(Registered Charity No. 1075348)

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