AS he stood in the ‘touchdown’ area of the Forest’s ultra-modern, new campus, the principal of Gloucestershire College, Matthew Burgess admitted his point might sound “a bit bizarre”.
But then, perhaps, not many would think that a college for 16 to 18-year-olds would be overly concerned about what is happening with kids aged 11.
But Mr Burgess says the Forest and Gloucestershire need to retain future talent – and that starts well before they are thinking about courses at the £15.6 million facility that is the “anchor tenant” at the Northern Quarter development on the outskirts of Cinderford.
Speaking to journalists before a tour of the campus, he said: “One of the things that always strikes me in the Forest of Dean is that 20 per cent of kids leave age 11 to go to Gloucester or Hereford or wherever and so there is that drain.
“That is partly because of the 11-18 offer and what parents want for their children.
“At primary level, attainment (in Forest schools) is OK but at secondary level attainment is quite poor compared to the national position.
“What this is really about is how do we get kids to stay in the Forest of Dean aged 11?
“It might be a bit bizarre in a 16-18 facility but that is the ultimate goal.”
The thinking is clearly that a modern college to replace the clapped out facilities at Five Acres will help persuade parents not to send their kids to grammar school in Gloucester or high-performing comprehensives in Ross or Monmouth.
Mr Burgess added: “What we wanted to do was provide a purpose-built facility deliver vocational and academic programmes as part of the Cinderford Northern Quarter regeneration.
“We are the anchor tenant for the whole scheme and it was an education-led planning approval. We have worked with Homes England from the beginning to make this happen.
“Someone has to go first with these things and we did to encourage retention at both age 11 and 16 –that is so important.”
The first students arrived at the beginning of September and Mr Burgess said there had been a “very positive enrolment.”
“People who come here are wowed by it and we have the opportunity to step on and get those kids to stay in the Forest .
“It’s better if they stay here as they achieve better if they are not spending half a day on a bus to Gloucester or wherever.
“As a county we cannot afford to waste any talent, we need every single one of them and what they will bring, so it is important they can access something locally.”
He said employers take a great interest in the ‘talent pipeline’ coming out of the college and will want to know the best students.
The college is also working with Dene Magna School at Mitcheldean potentially to bring back A-Levels from September next year.
Gloucestershire College stopped taking students for A-Levels in 2016 in the face of plummeting numbers opting for the qualification, but the partnership with Dene Magna – who are currently in talks with the Department for Education – could see them restored to the curriculum.
Campus principal Sandra Tyrrell said there were more than 400 full-time students at the new college and it will continue to expand courses to increase numbers to the capacity of around 900.
She said: “For example, we will offer level three travel next year which fits very nicely with the aspiration for young people to go on to apprenticeships and to support local businesses because our area has become a destination for holidays and tourism.”
It has taken five years since plans were first announced that the college wanted to relocate to Cinderford.
The causes of the delay have been numerous from the complexity of the planning issues associated with the Northern Quarter development as a whole, getting an access road built, legal challenges to the overall regeneration project and funding issues.
Funding was secured from the then Skills Funding Agency (SFA) in 2013 but the development of the college was tied up in the planning permission for the site as a whole.
Mr Burgess said: “The problem was that we needed to have planning and funding in place at the same time and there was a limited window to get the funding.
“But the planning application came much later because that was planning for the whole regeneration scheme, it wasn’t just our bit.
“In 2015 planning went through but our SFA funding lapsed because the SFA was disbanded and money went into the LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) pot –so we had to go back to the beginning.
“First we had money and no planning and then planning but no money. It was a very uncertain period.”
The legal challenges to the Northern Quarter project came from environmentalists and there were also concerns about the stability of the land under which there are many old mine workings.
Mr Burgess said ecology was “a big part” of the development of the college because of the significance of the many species in the area.
He said: “Before we started, 14,000 amphibians were translocated to some other venue in the Forest and we erected barriers so no more protected creatures would come onto site during the build programme.
“People were patrolling the fences twice a day – if anything got through we would have had to stop work.
“There are motorised blackout blinds on one side of the building so there is no light spill on the bat runs at certain times of the day.
“There are dormice runs on the spine road and the bridge over the little brook on the spine road is enormous so bats can fly underneath and dormice can run along it.”
The bulk of the £15.8 million cost came from the college which contributed £9.1 million – including £2.5 million from the sale of Five Acres – £4.1 million from Homes England and £2.6 million from the GFirst Local Enterprise Partnership.
The building sits on nearly 2,000 piles, each eight metres (26 feet) deep and Mr Burgess said there was no danger of “any part of the building sinking.”
Work started on the building on May 22 last year and was ahead of schedule until the snow hit at the beginning of this year.
Gloucestershire-based builders Barnwood Construction made up the lost time and the college was handed over on September 3, just 24 hours before staff and students were due to start work.
Councillors and other dignitaries have already been given a tour of the building and local people can have a look around when the college holds an open day on Wednesday, November 7.
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Students give their view
COLLEGE principal Matthew Burgess says everyone who visits the new building is ‘wowed’ by it. What do students make of it?
There certainly seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for the new facility, especially among those who have made the transition from the former Five Acres site.
IT student Darnell Berry said the new college is “fresh and gorgeous” and a definite improvement on the old place.
He said: “It’s quite a transition, coming from a blocky college that was slapped together and added onto – this is fresh and gorgeous.
“It’s an amazing new campus, not like anything we’ve seen and there are a lot less distractions than there were at the previous campus.
“We could see the Lakers football pitch and sometimes your attention span was split.
“Here we see the lake and nature is our distraction but we can focus on our work.
Fellow Level Three IT student Andrew Nicholas, of Blakeney, added: “I’m very happy with the new college.
“The old college was a maze and you had to go through different corridors and classrooms.
“Now they have downsized it so everything is compact in the centre and everything is focussed in the main atrium, “It feels a lot more homely and you know where everyone is or will be.
“A lot of the teachers are more approachable because you see a lot more of them around.
“Because it is smaller, you get to know more people and the atmosphere is a lot more welcoming than on the old campus.”
Level Two motor skills student John Budge, from Bream, is also impressed with the new college.
He said: ”It is a lovely building – I was at Five Acres for two years and this is a lot different.
“Hopefully people will benefit from it for years to come.
“Five Acres was a bit out of date but here it is all new.”
But the new, compact campus can have it down-sides.
Student Eve Downing joked: “When everyone’s in on the same day it’s like a swarm of wasps!”