Parents’ Association funds upgrade to BMS climbing wall 08 November 2024

Thanks to generous funding from the Bedford Modern School Parents’ Association (BMSPA), the school has upgraded its climbing wall to a bespoke facility that will allow us to offer new opportunities to students. The £57,000 project means we will be able to run climbing clubs and eventually allow GCSE PE students to take climbing as an option for their studies.

Carefully designed by EP Climbing, who supplied climbing walls for the last two Olympic Games, the wall offers a range of different challenges with slabs, overhangs, and different routes. It is tailor-made for novice climbers and students keen to develop their skills and is compliant with Level 2 of the National Indoor Climbing Award Scheme (NICAS).

Once our staff have gained the specific qualification required, we will be able to run climbing clubs for students and provide ad hoc climbing sessions. We have also taken the opportunity to upgrade our climbing equipment such as ropes, harnesses and belaying devices and we plan for the school to become an accredited NICAS centre, allowing us to open it to the general public for leisure climbing sessions.

The project is yet another example of the BMS community coming together to benefit the student body. Members of the BMSPA visited the school on Friday 08 November to see the new facility first hand.

Rebecca Pointer, Chairperson of the BMSPA, said: “Thanks to the hard work of our volunteers during fundraisers and initiatives like the Nearly New Shop, we are delighted to have been able to fund this project. It is a real legacy piece. We wanted to spend the money on something that would make a big difference to students and, through hiring, bring additional revenue back into school.”

We are enormously grateful for the BMSPA’s ongoing support.