Now nearly 2000! |
| Holme Lacy College is no longer the happy place it once was - it has been subsumed by Herefordshire College of Technology and must now be referred to as the "Holme Lacy Campus". This website was maintained until Aug 2005 independently for the NPTC "Skills for Working Life" and school students at the college when it was part of the Pershore Group. |
The Georgian Bower House (originally a rather impressive farmhouse now housing college offices, but not listed) will be demolished under the grand plan, as presumably will the now derelict concrete silo tower nearby which dates from 1912 and is one of only two known in the county.
Foundations at Holme Lacy College Campus |
"Skills For Working Life" & schools - last updated 19th August 2005
key skills? who needs them? Zoom in on HLC school pages Fun Day 2003 Captain Carrot Archived files Committee Calendar Humour Awards Part-timers Greg's Field bbq |
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From Outside the Tent...........
September 2008
Despite being starved of funds, HLC still retained its independent spirit whilst part of the Pershore Group of Colleges. Staff were mostly happy, as were students. Courses in the Foundation and School Departments were tailored to individual students' needs and could be from one day a week to full time.
Since the takeover by Herefordshire College of Technology, Holme Lacy College (or the Holme Lacy Campus, as it is now known) has become a very different place. A large number of the original staff have left and many of those remaining are now looking elsewhere, having been weighed down by a deluge of seemingly unecessary paperwork, petty restrictions and the fact that they now have very little control over their own destinies.
Morale is low as teaching staff have little autonomy, rule being by diktat from Folly Lane. Decisions are made with little or no consultation and representations ignored. Dissent is frowned upon. This new direction became apparent from day one - the staff room was closed. Staff now have to eat at their desks and there is minimal inter-department conversion - a textbook "divide and rule" management strategy.
Another great charm of the college was (and still is at present) the feeling of space engendered by the spread of workshops and classrooms over quite a wide area, giving a very pleasant feel to the campus. This will all change soon. The next phase is to level the site, including the Bower House (Holme Lacy parish council please note) and to build a soulless monolithic teaching block similar to that at Folly Lane.
The new management seem to have no respect for the past and wish to erase all traces of it. How much longer will the estate, college farm and the Pound Farm organic unit remain as part of the campus?