WYCLIFFE COLLEGE , nr Stroud, Gloucestershire Background
Since it was founded in 1882 Wycliffe has always dared to be different and has moved with the times. Having long discarded some of the arcane traditions of other public schools, Wycliffe is forward-thinking and innovative, emphasising as it does the importance of life skills and pupil initiative.

Discipline at Wycliffe places more emphasis on individual responsibility rather than blind obedience to school rules - all part of the life skills philosophy. This ‘holistic' approach to education is witnessed by a focus on all-round sporting activities.

Wycliffe challenges and encourages pupils to reach beyond themselves in surroundings, which prove that learning can be fun. The excellent relationship between pupils and staff, reinforced through the enormously varied activities and sports programmes, provides an exemplary basis for academic achievement and fulfilment.

Wycliffe has 50 buildings of differing styles and age on two campuses spread across 70 acres of grounds in the picturesque Cotswolds, near Stroud. Four years ago the school began an extensive programme of refurbishment to all its buildings to provide state of art residential, academic and sporting facilities.

A new Advanced Learning Centre, in which there will be a new library and 24 high-tech classrooms, will be completed in time for September 2004.

A substantial new sports complex opens in April 2004 that will cater for all indoor games. An attached two-storey cricket pavilion provides a stunning architectural flourish.

Simultaneously there has been a programme to improve and extend the provision of outdoor pitches and courts for all the main team games. For example the school wanted to increase the number of its hard tennis courts from five to twenty one. This was ambitious under any circumstances, but not much of the picturesque Cotswolds is flat!

Challenges
The team was tasked by Head Groundsman David Smart to establish a full programme of Re-development and reinstatement of the existing tennis courts, with consecutive work on a steeply inclined football pitch, which at first required no planning permission, but subsequently became subject to planning regulations.

Solutions
The brief was to provide more playing areas, with the first task to re-surface the college tennis courts, which comprises a resurfacing and repair programme, making good surface requirements.

The football pitch, a programme undertaken after the tennis court improvements and resurfacing, was based on a pre-requisite set by the client: level the pitch as much as humanly possible, without dramatic civil engineering and additional punitive costs.

The Grimshaw team, had already pre-planned that additional earth for levelling could be utilised from excavations made through earlier development of the tennis courts. Joined-up thinking enabled quick transfer of earthworks to assist in reduction of the gradient at the nearby football pitch.

Results
Court work has resulted in enhancements to facilities, which now boast three new tennis courts and two netball courts. The football pitch has been greatly improved, with enhanced turf and drainage.

The school is now well equipped for the 21st century with the continual updating of ICT equipment and the development of new high-quality teaching and sports facilities.

Amongst so many changes - alterations, new buildings, evolving guidelines - the values and ethos of Wycliffe, which contributed to its success in the past, remain just as valid today. There is a spirit of endeavour in every aspect of school life, combined with an abiding loyalty and respect for fellow Wycliffians. Wycliffe is committed to providing the best facilities for its pupils and staff, both inside and outside the classroom.

Over the next three years there will be a further multi-million pound investment in the school, including plans for two major projects, replacement classrooms at its Prep School and a new swimming pool that will be made available for some community use.