A FORMER soldier from the southern tip of Powys has set up a school from scratch, just seven months after watching a documentary which planted the seed in his mind.

Gavin Lewis has a building with two classrooms, a curriculum, two teachers lined up, and an Estyn registration for 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, and Mr Lewis is hoping that local authorities will consider placing pupils there from September onwards.

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.

A classroom at Ysgol Antur Cwm, Ystradgynlais (pic by Richard Youle)

“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.”

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.”

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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, taking on a management role with Aldi, leaving after around six years.

He began his current three-year project management role with Swansea University in November 2022.

Creating Ysgol Antur Cwm 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.”

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.”

(Image: NQ)

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.

Prospective pupils will be introduced to courses in activities such as map-reading and hiking, rock climbing, cycle maintenance and sailing.

Mr Lewis said pupils would receive badges for completed courses which corresponded to a national qualification.

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. Classroom-based learning will take place in the mornings and outdoor education in the afternoons.

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.

“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.

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.

Mr Pinner, 33, said Mr Lewis had sold him on the concept of Ysgol Antur Cwm.

“It’s brilliant," he said. "It’s seeing someone else have that passion that I still have got for the outdoors."