Lord Puttnam of Queensgate has been invited to perform the official opening ceremony for the University of Bristol’s Graduate School of Education next week.

Work has recently been finished on creating a new state-of-the-art teaching and conference facility on the fourth floor of the School’s main building in historic Berkeley Square.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) awarded the School £880,000 from its Teaching Initiative Fund (TIF) last year for the project.

The aim was to transform the space into a top quality learning environment for staff and students reflecting Bristol University’s position as one of the leading institutions in the country.

Talented young architect Tom Russell was selected to make this become a reality. His imagination, creativity and understanding of the ethos of the School made for a very productive collaboration. In addition the project came in on time and on budget.

As a result, there will be a number of events to mark the official opening of the refurbished fourth floor at 35 Berkeley Square on Thursday December 8.

The Graduate School is extending a warm welcome to visitors and has arranged an afternoon of presentations, exhibitions and hands-on science activities.

The new design of the fourth floor makes maximum use of natural light and opens up the space to spectacular views across Bristol.

Built into the plan is a large informal working space, which also acts as a meeting place for the School.

The roof terrace looks out onto the iconic Wills Memorial Building and the wider University precinct.

This visual link signals the School’s hope that this space will also be a meeting place for people across the city to work together to raise the educational opportunities of young people.

The new accommodation includes one large teaching space and conference space. All rooms are equipped with the most up-to-date audio visual and IT facilities.

Most exciting of these is the Access Grid Node, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). This is a multi-screen video conferencing facility, which will enable the Graduate School to make research collaborations with colleagues across the world, particularly in cutting edge analysis of video data. Links have already been made with Australia, Norway, and the USA.

The space also includes a science laboratory for training teachers, created in conjunction with the Science Learning Centre South-West.

Head of School, Professor Rosamund Sutherland, whose vision has driven the project, said: “I am thrilled with the transformation. Colleagues and students can now teach and study in spaces that are visually stunning and support state-of-the art learning technologies.”