Marlow headteachers pledge support to Marlow film studio plans

Plans to build film studio site along the A404 near Westhorpe roundabout with an application expected in the springtime.

Following backlash from nearby Westhorpe Park residents, local headteachers have praised the proposition.

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The film studio has promised education, traineeships, and work experience within the range of careers available in the film and television industry in the UK to young people locally.

An image released from the Marlow Studio Project

Kevin Ford, headteacher at Great Marlow School said: “A film studio such as this one, on our children’s doorsteps, will only add to the ambition and aspiration that many of our students already have, to move into the creative industries.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for local children of Marlow and we want to reiterate our willingness to be involved and support as part of the project.

“It’s not a question of whether it should happen, but when it can happen.

"The socio-economic argument is compelling and its very clear that giving our children vocational opportunities will allow them to have really interesting and rewarding careers in a growing industry, if that’s what they want.”

Kay Mountfield, headteacher at Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School in Marlow said: “We’re not expecting the film studio to serve everybody with jobs but to be able to have those opportunities which allow our young people to set themselves apart with really interesting work experience and training opportunities, is something I am really interested in working out with the project team.”

A discussion on jobs and training led by economic consultancy Volterra last week, detailed the local economic benefits of the project to a community group.

Ellie Evans, senior partner at Volterra said, “The team behind the studio proposal are completely committed to producing a skills, education and training model which delivers a pathway to exciting and lifelong careers within the industry.

“As part of this they are continuing to engage with a broad coalition of educational and training experts to develop a bespoke offer which will maximise employment skills benefits across the area.

“The support from education providers within Marlow has been overwhelmingly positive already and these relationships are being built for the benefit of future generations and also to protect the longevity of the UK’s film and television production industry.”

Mark Hartley, headteacher of Jam Academy, which provides specialist training for performance and production arts, said: “The location of this studio would be absolutely brilliant for our young people and our educators to demonstrate the huge amount of career options available – opening up the industry to people who never dared to imagine it.”

“The new media belt up in the north of the UK has brought a resurgence of creativity in those cities that wasn’t there before.

"Young people are seeing that they could be filmmakers, writers, and tv directors and we need to debunk this myth that these jobs are unattainable for our young people.

“We want to inspire young people and give them inspiration, so they don’t feel these careers are out of their reach.

"Jobs within this industry are incredibly rewarding and have real security as the opportunity and growth within the sector is only increasing.”