Kingswood Educational Activity Centres has announced its purchase of Ashford’s Grosvenor Hall site. The UK’s leading educational activity provider and part of Education Travel Group, Kingswood will develop the site into the top educational activity centre in Europe, continuing the company’s rich heritage of study, sports and technology.
Formerly a police training centre, Grosvenor Hall has been vacant since 2006. Following a multi-million pound development by Kingswood, the 50 acre Grosvenor Hall site will reopen in March 2010 as a high specification educational centre of excellence, with some of the best outdoor education facilities in the UK.
The culmination of 30 years of experience, Grosvenor Hall will represent the pinnacle of education and adventure provision, building on the recent successes of new Kingswood centres at Dukeshouse Wood in Northumberland and Colomendy in Wales. Chosen for its excellent location, just minutes from the M20 and Ashford International Eurostar station, Grosvenor Hall will welcome children and teachers from across the south east and internationally.
The centre will operate educational courses tailored directly to teachers’ requirements, fulfilling areas of the curriculum that are difficult to cover in a classroom environment and combining educational modules with activities. The new centre will feature 375 beds for residential stays, 18 classrooms for ICT and language learning, a media centre and 30,000 sq ft of sports facilities. Amongst the other new facilities will be a water sports lake with kayaking and raft building activities, a 22,000 sq ft sports hall, an indoor aquatics centre for swimming and scuba diving, and a high adrenaline ropes park for team building activities.
Dean Saunders, centre director of Kingswood Grosvenor Hall, commented, “ We believe passionately in the value of learning outside the classroom and all of our Kingswood centres are aimed to benefit education in the local area. We shall be taking great care to ensure the new facilities are affordable for local schools, so that teachers and pupils across the south east can take advantage of the facilities on their doorstep. We’re keen to get local people involved in the project and will be organising an open day for local residents to look around the centre early next year. All development works will use local contractors and we anticipate that Grosvenor Hall will create 150 new jobs in the Ashford area.”