Golden Valley backs Cyber First initiative at Cleeve School
Jack Kidder, Cllr Rowena Hay, Alex Sharpe, Jake Richings, Alwyn Richards
Golden Valley is continuing to build early momentum across its social value programme, with new funding to support Cleeve School's Distribution Hub, a key part of the Cyber First initiative
The hub loans educational cyber equipment to primary and secondary schools, helping young people across Gloucestershire develop digital skills and confidence.
The funding will ensure the school can continue loaning its popular ‘crates’ containing full class sets of devices including ipads, laptops, ohbots (programmable robot heads), spheros, used to teach coding and robotics, and raspberry PIs, which are credit-card-sized single-board computers.
The support reflects Golden Valley's commitment to delivering meaningful benefits across its five social value priorities; employment and skills, a thriving, innovative economy, a rich cultural offering, health and wellbeing, and biodiversity and the protection of Cheltenham’s environment.
Golden Valley will also continue its partnership with Jam Coding throughout 2026, offering workshops in areas such as computer game design, stop motion animation and robotics coding for primary school pupils. Other initiatives include a food pantry collection point at the town centre MX building, which supports West Cheltenham Food Pantry, plus the use of event and meeting space for local organisations to meet and collaborate.
Hamer Boot, Interim Managing Director at HBD, said: “Supporting digital skills and future talent is a core priority for Golden Valley so we’re pleased to be backing Cleeve School’s Distribution Hub. Our social value strategy is focused on creating long-term benefits for Cheltenham and our team are underway with various initiatives which demonstrate our commitment to delivering meaningful, lasting impact.”
Cllr Rowena Hay, Leader of Cheltenham Borough Council, said: “Golden Valley is a landmark development for Cheltenham, and this latest funding highlights the project’s commitment to delivering long-term social value. Initiatives like Cleeve School’s Distribution Hub and Jam Coding are helping to build the skills pipeline for our future economy, while delivering real benefits for residents, schools and community organisations across the borough.”
Alwyn Richards, Executive Head of Cleeve School, said: “Cleeve School is delighted to be working in partnership with the digital community and Golden Valley, in particular. The UK is reliant on its schools to 'upstream' the nurturing of digital talent and to help shape the future workforce. Cleeve does this exceptionally well, having won national awards for its cyber work. We are still in the foothills, however, so would welcome even bigger conversations about connecting cyber industry with our flourishing classrooms.”