As a department of Reepham High School & College, Reepham Learning Community (RLC) aimed to provide local people with new skills and qualifications, offering a wide range of educational and leisure courses and workshops.
 
RLC was initially funded by the high school for family learning events that linked in with the school’s specialisations in mathematics, science and information technology.
 
But when this changed several years ago the department was expanded to offer adult education classes and one-day workshops as there was nothing available locally for the community.
 
RLC director Sandie Athow said: “We have been very successful with some of our courses that have run for more than five years and have employed local people, which has helped promote the economy of the area.
 
“We have always looked beyond the standard adult education courses and have offered a variety of courses and workshops enabling learners to develop their skills, such as basket making, felt making, bread making, car maintenance and art classes, in addition to the more academic classes, such as Spanish and German.
 
“Identifying learning needs has been one of our aims and we successfully applied for lottery funding to open an internet café in Foulsham with free computer access and internet help, and ran a succession of computer-based courses.
 
“We have thoroughly enjoyed working with the community and had some really good times,” said Ms Athow. “We are very sad to see it come to a close.”