Exploring Learning | Wykeham Journal

Cecily stands at the head of a long line of Mills men. Bill’s father and his two brothers were at Winchester in the 1930s before the Second World War. Bill’s father Peter, after taking an accelerated two-year degree at Cambridge, served in the army in both India and North Africa. He was captured at El Alamein, was a prisoner-of-war in Italy, escaped, recaptured and was later a prisoner in Germany.

Peter’s older brother Hugh was killed in Burma and his name is listed in War Cloister. His younger brother John died at the age of 14 while a pupil at Winchester and is commemorated in Old Cloister. Bill’s connections do not stop there: as well as his uncles, his mother’s cousin and a nephew have all been at the school. His son Hereward (K, 2014-19) left recently.

Bill looks back to four teachers who particularly inspired him: Michael Fontes (Economics), Geoff Hewitson (his Housemaster), Mark Stephenson (Div) and John Durran (Maths). ‘I was a mathematician and so found the div system very good,’ Bill said. ‘They taught you to really think in an independent-minded way, to be willing to stand back and consider the whole picture. Dons like Mark Stephenson were quite extreme in what they expected of you. That teaching has stayed with me all my life.’

Lieutenant Hugh Basil Edward Mills (F, 1929-35) — Lieutenant Hugh Basil Edward Mills

Mills family represented cloisters — Mills family represented in cloister

They taught you to really think in an independent-minded way, to be willing to stand back and consider the whole picture.

Bill watches the arrival of girls at Winchester with the eye of an education professional. After taking a maths degree at St John’s College, Cambridge, he joined management consultants Bain & Company. This was the late 1980s and the peak of the revolution begun by Margaret Thatcher. ‘I filled in a questionnaire for the careers service at Winchester,’ Bill said. ‘I remember saying that I’d like to start my own business. We had become a society that respected and valued entrepreneurship.’

Bill’s grandfather had founded the prep school Highfield near Liphook in Hampshire, and Bill was brought up in the school when his father was Headmaster. After a few years at Bain, he went part-time to see if he could set up a pre-prep, and that school, Brookham, continues today alongside Highfield. Bill then joined Warrior, a smaller corporate finance firm focused on natural resources and mining. He was sent to Chicago to set up the company’s North American office. Living in the ‘Windy City’ gave him another idea.

Bill was well equipped to notice different approaches and better outcomes in schools. In Chicago he saw ‘learning centres’, complementing and supporting public education, and thought that he could start a company in Britain doing much the same. He came back from the US in 1998 and found the going hard for people who wanted to raise money from venture capital and private equity. The first flush of enthusiasm for online businesses had worn off. But he succeeded, and opened Explore Learning’s first centre in Chelmsford in 2001. The tuition was delivered face-to-face and online only later. When Covid-19 struck in 2020, Explore Learning was running 144 centres, and 38,000 children were taking lessons at least twice a week. Covid obliged the company to make a heavy investment in its online platform and to run fewer centres.

The first property on Kingsgate Street to be converted into a Girls’ Day House

What lay behind Bill’s life choices? Family background, obviously. But also the values he absorbed at Winchester which, he says, have been an influence through 100% of his life. ‘Winchester clearly valued service and public purpose. Education is of crucial importance. The Headmaster of my time, John Thorn, said that service is expected of privilege. That outlook definitely came partly from Winchester.’

If Winchester has become a more outward-looking school in the last half century, as I think it has, Bill’s story is part of that change. In the first half of the 20^th century, a significant part of Winchester’s service to society was the sacrifice of lives in two world wars. Nowadays, that service can take many forms — including the kind of innovation which Bill has driven in what has become known as support education.

In his view, one vital ingredient in a school’s contribution to the wider world is finding the right balance between freedom and control. Make the control too rigid — and he thinks that has happened at some schools — and initiative is stifled. ‘John Thorn embraced a pretty liberal style of education; he talked about boys having “agency”. I remember it as being allowed to decide what you do with your time.’ Cecily Mills is currently testing how
that balance is being struck today.

“It’s such a thrill to be able to benefit from the same amazing education that my brother, father, grandfather and great-uncles all enjoyed before me.”

Man and woman walking along street — Walking along Kingsgate Street

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