South Cambridgeshire MP Andrew Lansley has inspected the site of Cambridgeshire's first new village college for 30 years.

Along with Claire Coates, recently appointed head of school for Cambourne Village College, and Stephen Munday, the executive principal of both Comberton and Cambourne village colleges, Mr Lansley visited the site of the new Cambourne Village College.

Commissioned by Cambridgeshire County Council, the state-of-the-art building, which is due to open initially for 150 Year 7 students in September 2013 and will eventually cater for 750 students aged 11-16, is being designed and built by Kier and project-managed by Faithful and Gould, with Frank Shaw Associates as architects.

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Cambridgeshire is famous for having been the birthplace of community education, where school buildings can also be used by adults for learning and leisure. Henry Morris famously developed the concept of the village college in the 1930s, Sawston being the first, and the idea has taken off across England and abroad.

Cambourne Village College will be the first new village college in the county for 30 years, and it is intended that it should live up to the Henry Morris philosophy. Plans are already in place for adult classes in a community lecture room, and for community use of facilities for sport and the arts.

As part of the Comberton Academy Trust, a 'family' of schools with a strong relationship with Comberton Village College, Cambourne Village College will share the ethos of Comberton Village College, and most of the Cambourne teachers will initially be Comberton staff, sharing their time between the two schools.

(CD)