St Martin’s College shares a campus with St Rose’s Special School at Stratford Lawn, Stroud, Gloucestershire. The college caters for students aged 19-25 years old and the curriculum delivers the skills our students will need in their next settings, to enable them to live as independently as is possible for each individual student.
The college is currently made up of two separate buildings. Jean Paul House, (JPH) which was built in 1990, St Martin’s Bungalow built in 2000. The latter building has a lower ground floor with two large teaching spaces, a small teaching space, which was originally a cupboard and office, and student bathrooms. On the upper floor is a large kitchen/diner/living room, 2 offices and 3 student bedrooms and bathrooms. JPH has a kitchen, a further teaching area, and very dated bedrooms and bathrooms, JPH is 34 years old, and the bathrooms are not suitable for most of our students.
Over the years the complexity of our students’ disabilities, both learning and physical, has grown and in addition many of our students also have complex health issues. To ensure that we can continue to meet the needs of our students and be relevant in the future we need to carry out some extensive changes to the buildings that make up St Martin’s College.
Our plans have been designed in consultation with architects Roberts Limbrick, cost consultants AFA Ltd, the management team in St Martin’s as well as our therapists and Senior Leadership Team. St Martin’s staff and students will have to continue to use the building during the construction work, it will therefore be necessary to complete the work in 3 clear phases.
Project Connect is the 3-phase improvement plan for St Martin’s College.
- To provide 2 additional teaching spaces, new bathrooms, offices and a new sensory pathway from the car park down to the new college entrance on the lower ground level. This area will include several sensory elements and seating areas. Students and staff will be able to enjoy this area of the grounds when required during the college day.
- Provide a link corridor between the 2 existing buildings, and build 2 new bedrooms, 1 new Jack n Jill bathroom as well as a new staff toilet.
- Finally, the last phase will fully remodel and refurbish the oldest bungalow JPH, to ensure its bedrooms and bathrooms are state of the art. We will also reinstate the JPH lounge, which has been used as a teaching space.
We need facilities that are fit for purpose to ensure our students can live comfortably and with dignity as they learn the life skills that will assist them when they transition to their next settings.
Initial funds raised under the banner Project Connect will be spent on completing the work listed in Phase 1 above. Planning permission has been obtained for the work and it is our aim, if funds can be secured, to start the work in Spring 2025.
Helen Hunt
October 2024
