School to become cultural hub

NAILSEA School is hoping to become a hub for cultural and sporting activities for people of all ages in the town.

The state-of-the-art school in Mizzymead Road is opening its doors to the community by offering a number of educational courses and sporting activities including circuit training, hockey, photography, ICT and art classes.

The school is currently setting up a not-for-profit organisation to run the extra activities so that the money raised from the courses will be spent improving the school’s facilities for members of the community.

Trudy Jones, assistant head of specialised learning at Nailsea School, said: “We are very excited about offering these new activities. It was always part of our vision and we are now trying to get it up and running.

“Any money we make will be ploughed back into creating more resources so we can keep it as a top class facility.

“In the future we want to put a cover over the tennis courts so it can be used all the time, we’d like to put in a running track and also build some changing rooms on the Golden Valley fields so they can be used more.

“We are also looking at running mother and toddler groups and making the facility available for parties, so we’re hoping to put up a climbing wall for that.

“We are hoping people aged 0-70 will come in and use our facilities. If you have something you want to do which we don’t already offer, just let us know.”

During weekends, after school and in the evenings, the school puts on football, badminton, hockey, tennis, circuit training and dance classes.

Adults can also pop in to take part in a variety of classes including basic ICT, photography and media courses.

Staff are also hoping to put on some family courses so that children and their parents can learn how to create their own comics and enjoy educational activities together.

The school also wants to support businesses and community groups by hosting conferences, functions and community events as well putting on holiday schemes, summer schools and coaching events for youngsters.

Anyone interested in hiring the facilities or finding out about the courses can visit www.nailseaschool.com or call Rebecca Kettleborough on 01275 852251.