The founder of an award-winning school which didn’t exist until last year is already on the hunt for a second site.

Former soldier and operations manager Gavin Lewis launched Ysgol Antur Cwm, Ystradgynlais, which specialises in outdoor learning for 11-to-16-year-old boys with additional learning needs after watching a documentary about how many children with these needs weren’t attending school in the UK.

Despite no experience as an education provider, he found a building and then a couple of teachers. He devised a curriculum, registered Ysgol Antur Cwm with Welsh education inspection body Estyn, and along came the first pupil last autumn.

Mr Lewis set himself a goal of 10 pupils by the end of the first year and local education authorities have placed 10 pupils there, although one had to leave. Another pupil is due to join this week.

“I’m really chuffed – we set ourselves the milestone and we are managing to achieve it,” said Mr Lewis.

Ysgol Antur Cwm also won employer of the year at the annual South Wales Business Awards held in September.

The school operates from two classrooms at a former day centre in Ystradgynlais although much of the activity takes place out and about. Pupils learn things like carpentry and bike and vehicle mechanics as well as literacy and numeracy. There are also watersports, climbing, and navigation courses among others.

The site’s capacity of 14 pupils means Mr Lewis has started looking for a second building. He has submitted an expression of interest in Llandarcy Community Centre just under 13 miles away and would be keen to hear from councils which might have an empty building available.

It has been a pretty hectic year and a half but with plenty of highs.

“It’s the reward you get from it,” said Mr Lewis. “I can see a purpose. We’ve had parents saying it’s the best thing that’s happened to their family.”

The 40-year-old, who grew up in Ystradgynlais and now lives in Sketty, Swansea, left school with only a few GCSEs and went straight into the Royal Military Police. He lived in Germany for eight years and had a seven-month stint in Iraq.

His most recent job, at Swansea University, was due to end this month but he said he left in May to focus full-time on Ysgol Antur Cwm where an Estyn inspection was imminent. Over the summer he developed software to cut paperwork and better track pupils’ progress.

The school’s cohort of pupils with social, emotional, and mental health needs or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder means it’s resource-intensive. Ysgol Antur Cwm has 12 teachers, a part-time English and maths tutor, and pupils are taken out to activities separately.

The main thrust is to get the youngsters ready for post-16 education or employment and ensure they have some reading and numeracy skills. Mr Lewis said he believed the high level of resources were needed “otherwise I think it would fail”.

Tom and Caroline Collings said their 14-year-old son Fynley was thriving at the school having struggled elsewhere. He joined in April and has attended every day since bar a couple of days when he was ill.

“He wants to be there,” said Mr Collings, of Caerphilly. “I can’t praise them enough, what they’re doing.”

Mrs Collings said the school’s progress reports for Fynley were very thorough and “on a different level” to others he’d received in the past. “He’s very keen to learn and has been asking when he’s going to do more reading and maths,” she said. “To us it’s everything knowing he is now in a setting he is happy in.”

Estyn inspectors described a strong culture promoting pupils’ wellbeing at Ysgol Antur Cwm and a calm learning environment where staff quickly earned pupils’ trust following their visit in May. Pupil behaviour, they said, was mostly respectful. The inspectors recommended four areas of action including consideration of a board to provide support and challenge to the school.

Mr Lewis said he has been receiving guidance on things like pupil bench-marking from a teacher at an independent school teacher in Cardiff whom he described as a “critical friend”.

The school’s website said the education on offer was of a different kind. A quote on the website from Mr Lewis said: “These young people don’t need fixing - they need a setting that fits them. For some a day spent climbing, building, repairing, or hiking does more for their confidence than a week of classroom work.”