An outdoor education-based school founded by a former soldier which had everything except a pupil now has two.

Ysgol Antur Cwm in the Swansea Valley was set up this year by Gavin Lewis, who had no previous experience in education but felt there were young people out there who would benefit from hands-on learning.

He secured a building in Ystradgynlais, recruited two teachers, devised a curriculum, began contacting local education departments and, crucially, got the school registered with Welsh education inspection body Estyn.

All that was missing were pupils, and now Mr Lewis can tick that off his list - although he needs more to make the school sustainable in the long-term.

He said the early results were promising. The school is designed to cater for 11 to 16-year-olds with additional learning needs, particularly those facing social, emotional, and mental health challenges, and who may have been excluded from mainstream education.

“The attendance rate for both pupils is 100 per cent,” said Mr Lewis.

“It’s a remarkable achievement.”

He said the school day was 9am to 3pm Monday to Friday and that the pupils, aged 13 and 15, did activities such as cycle maintenance, carpentry, map-reading, hiking and rock climbing, as well as English and maths. The idea is that when they leave they could go to college or be ready for the world of work.

The younger of the two pupils started in September while the second to arrive, 15-year-old Ieuan Thomas, began in the first week of November.

Mr Lewis, who currently works full-time at Swansea University, said he handed out awards to the two boys last week.

“They were absolutely buzzing,” he said.

Ieuan’s mother, Gemma Thomas said her son had taken very well to the school having struggled with mainstream education.

“He’s loving it,” she said.

“He’s got the help and support he needs. What a difference – he’s much happier, much calmer, his behaviour has improved.”

Miss Thomas said she had been a bit wary about placing Ieuan at Ysgol Cwm Antur as they live just over 30 miles away but she was reassured when she first met Mr Lewis and headteacher Rhys Pinner.

“I knew they were going to help him,” she said.

The mother-of-five said Ieuan, a keen rugby league and union player, liked learning about mechanics and enjoyed the school’s hiking and rock climbing sorties.

Mr Pinner, an outdoor education instructor who is registered with regulator the Education Workforce Council, said it was good to finally have pupils after all the preparation beforehand.

“You find that some things work really well, and some things don’t work like you expected,” he said.

Using the outdoors as a “gateway” to education and discovering what the pupils really enjoyed, he said, were examples of things that worked well.

“So far we have been able to work around the weather,” said Mr Pinner.

The school, based at Ystradgynlais Community Centre, provides pupils with kit including hiking boots, and a packed breakfast and lunch. Mr Lewis, of Swansea Marina, had to refurbish the building and acquire a school vehicle and IT equipment. The support provided for pupils is resource-intensive, and Mr Lewis is keen to add to the school roll. Its capacity is 14, and if all went well a second site could be sought.

The idea for Ysgol Antur Cwm, or Adventure Valley School, came about in December last year when Mr Lewis was watching a documentary in which it was said that 9,000 children with additional learning needs in the UK were not at school.

Speaking in July, the 39-year-old said: “I looked into it and thought, if there’s no infrastructure could I set my own school up? I grew up in Ystradgynlais and left school with only a few GCSEs. I didn’t function very well in that environment. I went straight into the (Royal) Military Police and moved to Germany for eight years. ” 

He said outdoor-based education would have been “right for me”, and set about making it happen.

Mr Pinner also grew up in the Ystradgynlais area after moving from Pembrokeshire aged eight. He left school at 16 with few GCSEs, dropped out of college after four months of A-levels, and started an outdoor instructor apprenticeship. It was the start of rewarding career. The school’s second teacher is Joe Dawkins, a carpenter with outdoor education experience.

Mr Lewis said he has invested his own money in Ysgol Antur Cwm but hasn’t taken a salary. His role at Swansea University is due to end next October, at which point he intends to be involved full-time with the school. More pupils will be key.

“I’m confident that we can keep going,” he said.

There is plenty to attend to for now. Estyn is due to visit for an inspection towards the end of December and, as an independent school, VAT will be applied in January following a change in the rules. 

Mr Lewis said the school could take up 30 hours of his time a week outside of his full-time work.

“At seven o’clock last night I was negotiating a deal for an online training programme with a provider,” he said.