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Glinton: New gym will inspire pupils
OLYMPIC medallist Louis Smith said he hopes a new gym planned at his former school will inspire more Peterborough champions.
OLYMPIC medallist Louis Smith said he hopes a new gym planned at his former school will inspire more Peterborough champions. The former Arthur Mellows Village College pupil said he was delighted at the news the school had been given the money to build a new gymnasium facility complete with changing rooms.
As well as having the new gym, the Glinton school will transform its current sports building into a new innovation and skills centre as part of a 2 million state-of-the-art project to provide the new manufacturing and product design diploma for 14 to 19-year-olds across the city.
The 20-year-old Eye athlete was Britain's first gymnast to win an Olympic medal for 80 years when he won bronze for the pommel horse.
He said: "It is so inspiring to turn up for your PE lesson or training in a fantastic facility.
"It really helps motivate you to do your best and hopefully with London 2012 coming up it will inspire pupils to do more sport,
"Although for gymnastics I trained using specialist equipment in Huntingdon, I used to do my PE lessons at Arthur Mellows and I know the pupils will get a real kick out of using the new place.
"Anything that gets kids into doing fitness can only be a good thing and the more sporting champions we have in the city the better."
The proposed project includes the provision of a new gymnasium complete with changing facilities, store rooms and a laundry facility.
The existing gymnasium will then be converted into a new innovation centre, with the construction of a new mezzanine floor and internal rooms to provide a large production and workshop area, a computer suite with a Computer Aided Design (CAD) facility. There will also be a new conference and seminar room.
The 2 million funding is coming from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).
And construction firm Lindum Sturgeon Limited, which has offices in Newark Road, Peterborough, has been awarded the contract for the works.
Headteacher at Arthur Mellows Mike Sandeman said the project would take between 12 and 18 months to complete and said there were "exciting times ahead".
Mr Sandeman said: "This project will benefit not only the pupils at our college but youngsters across the whole of Peterborough.
"We were chosen for this project due to our college's technology specialist status and the work will enable us to lead on this particular aspect of the diploma.
"The work will hopefully start soon with the construction of the new gym and once that is completed the refurbishment of the old gym to build the innovation centre will then start."
And Mr Sandeman backed Louis in his efforts as he continues his training for the European Championships.
He added: "Louis was a very popular pupil when he was here and he has proved to be an inspiration to everyone with his Olympic exploits.
"We hope this fantastic facility will inspire pupils across the city not only in achieving success in sport but in engineering and technology as well."
DELIGHTED: Olympic gymnast and former pupil Louis Smith.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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