NCS invests heavily in new cutting-edge facilities to support students’ journey to excellence.

2024/2025 is a period of exciting change for New College Swindon (NCS). We have successfully secured £11 million of government funding to deliver innovative improvements to keep the College at the cutting- edge of learning environments.  

The College is halfway through a massive journey of improvement, which will ensure we continue to have the right facilities for our students over the coming years. 

Our New Animal Management Centre 

Phase 1 saw £1.8 million of T Level funding establish a brand-new, cutting-edge learning environment and facilities for the students, including enclosures for Lorikeets, Racoons, and Prairie Dogs.  Construction company, Zoo Fab, will return in November 2024 to install additional animal enclosures including the waterfowl enclosure and ponds. The Cats Protection League, working in partnership with NCS, are due to install their cat rescue homes in January 2025. 

Phase 2 of the T Level funding will see and additional £207k of specialist funding to improve the sheep facilities and an enclosure for chickens along with shelter for the sheep.  

A Breath of Fresh Air at Queens Drive Campus 

Major improvement works at the Queens Drive Campus have seen £1 million spent to replace the roof on the main building as well as replacing the plant equipment for the buildings air conditioning and air handling systems. 

Motor Vehicle Centre Improvements  

The Motor Vehicle Centre has had a new roof, and the building cladded to ensure the equipment and cars are secure, also supporting thermal improvements. With the addition of 50kw of solar panels this greatly improves the green credentials of the Motor Vehicle Centre. 

Crowdys Hill Facilities 

Working with local partners is very important to us and increasing the space that Crowdys Hill has on the North Star site ensures that this specialist provision continues to provide support for students with complex needs, whilst providing them the experience of being a student on a college campus. 

Major Transformations at our North Star Campus 

Those based at the North Star will have seen a huge amount of building work. 

These include; 

• Major improvements to the professional kitchen and hospitality facilites in our Lyra building. Removing the gas fossil fuels has allowed us to move to electric heating/ cooling and hot water systems supported by the installation of solar PV, further reducing our carbon footprint. 

• The new, Student Welcome Hub will create a centralised, innovative space for students to access student support and wellbeing services. The new Welcome Hub will join the main Phoenix building with the newly redeveloped Lyra building and will form part of our campus wide security upgrades as we create welcoming access routes to the campus and secure the wider campus perimeter. 

• The Electric Vehicle Training Centre will be completed by September 2025 and will be the first electric vehicle training centre in the South West offering a much-needed training facility for an important growth area.  

Our Journey to Net Zero 

Carbon reporting gives the College a baseline to track our journey to Net Zero and ensure we are making continuous improvements. 

600kw of solar panels installed across both campuses have already seen the College’s energy requirements reduce by 20% and the addition of LED lighting across both campuses means that NCS is significantly reducing its carbon footprint. 

315 trees, donated by the Woodland Trust have been planted on the North Star Campus and we continue to work with the Woodland Trust into 2025. 

By investing over £1 million in green technologies, the last review of the College’s Carbon reporting showed NCS had reduced its carbon footprint by 166 tonnes (15%) in the past year, meaning we are well on our way on our journey to Net Zero. 

Finally… 

All of the above doesn’t stop the College making all the important annual upgrades to IT systems, digital technologies such as wayfinding signage throughout both campuses, facilitating the important growth in T Levels with a new T Level in Digital Support, and estates cyclical upgrades/ replacement; including new furniture and security upgrades.  

It is important to everyone at the College that safety, security, and sustainability are at the heart of the cutting- edge learning environment, and offering a welcoming environment ensures we are supporting all our students on their journey to excellence. 

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