I took the opportunity to pay a brief visit to the Interim Principal of Cirencester College, Matt Reynolds. I wanted to convey my sympathies for the unexpected and untimely passing of the previous Principal, Jim Grant who dedicated 30 years to the college and will be missed by many in the community.

I was absolutely delighted to learn that they have had a record number of 3000 students over the last academic year, traveling from a 60 km radius to attend the school. This is partly because of the foresight of the college in becoming one of the foremost colleges teaching T Levels with both vocational teaching and 45 days of learning on the job. They currently offer 25 diverse T-Level courses for 16-19-year-olds at the college.

All of the buildings at the college are filled to capacity and they are concerned that they will not be able to cope with further increases in students interested in joining the college. Therefore, I will be liaising with the Government to see if we can find the funding for an extra building. The Principal and I also discussed the new Advanced British Standards announced by the Government which will eventually replace A levels and T levels, with the rollout planned to take around a decade.

Acting Principal Reynolds said that balancing the curriculum between academic and vocational learning which is offered by the college through their T Level courses produced pupils with far better life skills who tended to thrive better when they moved onto higher education. Equally, those who decided to go straight into employment after their T-Levels found the education they had received very useful for their careers.

All in all, I found the conversation very invigorating in that the Government proposals will provide young people with a much better start in life. I have always been very involved in Cirencester College and supportive of the work of Principal Jim Grant, I will renew this commitment in pushing the government to make the right decisions for our children.