Kingswood — the new owners of the former Earth Centre site — will hold a public exhibition at The Ivanhoe Centre, Gardens Lane, Conisbrough on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th of April to provide details of our proposed outdoor educational facility to be located on the former site. The exhibition will provide an opportunity for local people to see the proposals for the new centre and talk with staff from Kingswood who will be able to provide further information and answer questions.
Kingswood is a leading provider of residential education and adventure activity courses for schools and young people, with a 30-year track record, operating eight centres within the UK and one in northern France.
Kingswood’s multi-million pound investment programme will create a flagship residential activity centre on the site which has been vacant since 2004. The proposal is a natural continuation of the principles of education and environmental sustainable living, including preservation of the site’s parkland and infrastructure. Kingswood plans to retain and refurbish the existing buildings on the site as well as build new accommodation units for visiting students and teachers. The centre will also feature an 11,000 sq foot indoor activity and sports hall, classrooms for ICT, field studies and meeting rooms. The centre will offer low height initiative exercises, a high adrenaline ropes park for team building activities and multiple options for evening entertainment including indoor and outdoor amphitheatres and performing arts facilities.
As well as providing a stimulating and unique environment for young people to learn, the centre will play a key role in the community by creating up to 200 full time and temporary jobs from activity instruction through to IT support and catering.
“Some people will already know us as we welcomed nearly 1,000 Doncaster children to one of our centres last year. We want to make sure we get to know local people from the start and hear their views and ideas before we submit our planning application. We want to be part of the community in the future and this is the first step of that process.” Said Paul Gilbert, Kingswood’s CEO.
Summary
o Kingswood invites members of the local community to a public exhibition to take place on Friday April 8 between 11am to 7pm and on Saturday April 9 between 10am to 3pm.
o The event is a drop-in session. Visitors are welcome to spend as little or as much time as they would like learning about the project.
ENDS
Notes to editor
• More than 800 Doncaster children experienced Kingswood centres during the last academic year 2009-2010. They were among more than 145,000 children and young people and 3,000 schools across 130 local authorities who attended one of the nine Kingswood Educational Centres that are already operational – eight in the UK and one in France.
• Kingswood is a leading provider of campus-based educational and adventure activity courses for schools. Kingswood offers a full range of programmes for Key Stage 2 to A-Level and Scottish P4-7 through to Highers & Advanced Highers students. The educationally rich courses are designed to complement current curricula exam criteria and provide a stimulating learning opportunity outside the classroom for maximum academic benefit. During school vacations, Kingswood provides adventure activity and cultural exchange programmes under the Camp Beaumont brand.