The ex-soldier who has founded an outdoor learning-based school

Richard Youle, local democracy reporter

A former soldier from the Upper Swansea Valley has set up a school from scratch, just seven months after watching a TV documentary which planted the seed in his mind.

Gavin Lewis has a building with two classrooms, a curriculum, and two teachers lined up. The school is registered with Welsh education inspection body Estyn, and the clue to the concept is in its name – Ysgol Antur Cwm, or Adventure Valley School. It is aimed at 11-16-year-olds with additional learning needs, particularly those facing social, emotional, and mental health challenges, who would benefit from outdoor-based education.

The independent school is based at Ystradgynlais Community Centre, Ystradgynlais, and Mr Lewis is hoping that local authorities will consider placing pupils there from September onwards.

It’s a completely new project for Mr Lewis. He envisages having 10 pupils to start with – boys for now – with the school’s maximum capacity 14. If all went well, a second site would be sought for boys and girls.

Mr Lewis said he was watching a documentary last December in which it was said that 9,000 UK children with additional learning needs were not at school.

“I looked into it and thought, if there’s no infrastructure could I set my own school up?” he said. “I grew up in Ystradgynlais and left school with only a few GCSEs. I didn’t function very well in that environment. I went straight into the (Royal) Military Police and moved to Germany for eight years. While there I went to Iraq for seven months.”

‘Resonated’

The 39-year-old, who lives with his fiancee in Swansea Marina, said he would have benefited from an outdoor-based education. The documentary resonated. “If I could go back in time, this would be right for me,” he said. “I thought of the the community where I was brought up. If I hadn’t joined the military, I thought where would I be? But you shouldn’t have to join the military to succeed.”

Mr Lewis left the Military Police – the unit which polices armed service personnel – aged 30 having completed a distance-learning degree in security and risk management. He said he then landed a management role with retailer Aldi, leaving after around six years. He then took a year-long sabbatical to travel and fix a long-standing knee injury. He said he began his current three-year project management role with Swansea University in November 2022.

Transforming Ysgol Antur Cwm from concept to reality has been achieved in his spare time. “Once I’ve got an idea, I’m on it,” he said. But it hasn’t been plain sailing. “I tried to get a building but it was hard,” said Mr Lewis. “I then met the manager of the (Ystradgynlais) community centre, and he said a day centre which operated there had just left. I could see the potential.”

Refurbishing

The rooms needed refurbishing, a fenced-off outdoor area was required, numerous education regulations researched and complied with, a curriculum devised and teachers lined up.

He contacted an outdoor instructor he knew, Rhys Pinner, and pitched his idea. “He loved the concept and said ‘yes’,” said Mr Lewis. “He has so much teaching experience.” Also on board is Joe Dawkins – a carpenter with outdoor education experience. Both are registered with the Education Workforce Council, a regulator. Mr Lewis said a third teacher would be hired once pupils began arriving.

The school curriculum’s tag line is “discover, grow, succeed”. Prospective pupils would be introduced to courses in activities such as map-reading and hiking, rock climbing, cycle maintenance and sailing. There would be a list of corresponding competencies to provide a learning framework – for example understanding contour lines and grid references on maps and being able to plan a route.

Badges

Mr Lewis said pupils would receive badges for completed courses which corresponded to a national qualification. The idea is that when they left that they could go to college or be ready for the world of work.

He said pupils who were offered places at the school would get free hiking boots and outdoor clothing which would be kept there, plus packed lunches. The plan would generally be classroom-based learning in the mornings and outdoor education in the afternoons.

Mr Lewis applied to register the school with Estyn early in 2024. The day of the inspection finally came. All manner of documents were checked – admissions policy, safeguarding policy and fire alarm certificate among them – and an assessment of how pupils would develop.

He said: “I asked them at the end if they would recommend me for registration, and they said ‘yes’. I had tears in my eyes. I didn’t think we could achieve it that quickly.”

There was a further wait for a disclosure and barring service check to be carried out, and on June 19 Mr Lewis said he received an email from Estyn with the all-important registration number. “I nearly cried again – there was a risk they could have said ‘no’,” he said.

During this time Mr Lewis said he began contacting councils to introduce himself and his plans. The school is in Powys but close to Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire.

He said Neath Port Talbot Council has been “fantastic”, with officers visiting Ysgol Antur Cwm. He said another authority, Rhondda Cynon Taf, got back to him straight away.

Invested

Mr Lewis said he has invested around £10,000 of his own money into the project but wasn’t paying the two teacher salaries until pupils were placed there. Given that there would be three teachers’ wages if all went to plan, plus bills and things like insurance costs, pupil funding from local authorities would need to cover a lot.

“It’s about having a dialogue with a local authority – we can negotiate,” said Mr Lewis. “I’m quite good at budgets and forecasting.” He said he wouldn’t take a salary unless he worked at the school after his current university post.

Mr Lewis said making a positive impact drove him on. “Some jobs you do aren’t rewarding – this is going to be rewarding,” he said.

Estyn said its initial inspection of an independent school like Ysgol Antur Cwm checked areas such as the quality of education to be provided, the welfare, health and safety of pupils, the premises and suitability of staff. An Estyn spokeswoman said inspectors would usually return within three months of pupils being admitted to assess compliance against a set of standards with a particular focus on the quality of teaching and the welfare, health and safety of pupils.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service contacted Swansea, Powys and Neath Port Talbot councils. Powys Council said the additional learning needs of its pupils were normally met in mainstream schools, although some learners attended specialist teaching facilities attached to schools. Swansea Council said it had met Mr Lewis, while Neath Port Talbot Council didn’t respond at the time of going to press.

Benefits

For Mr Pinner, one of the instructors lined up to work at Ysgol Antur Cwm, the benefits of outdoor education could been enormous. Like Mr Lewis he grew up in the Ystradgynlais area after moving there from Pembrokeshire at the age of eight. He left school at 16 with few GCSEs, dropped out of college after four months of A-levels, and started an outdoor instructor apprenticeship. He never looked back.

He has worked with numerous young people and spends much of his current working life with new military recruits. “I’ve always seen the value of going out, of exploring and adventures and some of the hardships that go with that,” said Mr Pinner, 33.

He said Mr Lewis had sold him on the concept of Ysgol Antur Cwm. “It’s that idea of offering youngsters who might not fit in with the regular education system a new opportunity,” he said. “It’s brilliant. It’s seeing someone else have that passion that I still have got for the outdoors. You see that transition – that’s pretty good.”