WANTAGE'S Victorian convent is to revive its educational role in the town.

The Community of St Mary the Virgin is to host a new office for the town's biggest school body, the Vale Academy Trust (VAT).

The trust, which runs King Alfred's Academy and five local primaries, hopes to have up to 12 staff in the new office from this summer.

It will be the first time the sisters have had a role in town education since they helped run St Mary's School on Newbury Street, which closed in 2007 after 130 years.

Sister-in-charge Sister Stella said: "The sisters are delighted to be able to welcome the Vale Academy Trust to the convent site.

"Supporting education in schools has been an important part of the life and work of our community since it was founded.

"We look forward to contributing to the creative work of the Vale Academy Trust schools by making this space available."

The St Mary's community, founded in 1848 by Wantage vicar William John Butler, had a long educational role, setting up several schools including St Mary's in Wantage and St Helen and St Katharine in Abingdon.

The new arrangement comes as a further reassurance that the sisters will stay in the town, after they announced in 2014 they were hoping to sell up and move to a smaller residence.

Just 14 sisters now live at the Denchworth Road convent built to house 300.

After the search for a new home proved fruitless, the sisters announced they would stay in Wantage but try to increase their involvement with the community and make better use of their space.

The VAT will not pay rent but will cover the cost of renovating its building, which formerly housed a printing press.

The convent embroidery group who currently use the space to repair church vestments will move into the main building.

Chief executive of the VAT Simon Spiers said: "This move to local purpose-built facilities marks an important milestone in the development of the trust, the first in the country to combine both community and church schools.

"We really wanted to be based locally, somewhere within easy distance of our schools and yet in the heart of the local community where we first started.

"The premises are ideal for us and we are delighted at the possibility of sharing part of the convent site with the sisters."

Mr Spiers said the decision to move into the Church of England convent had been concurrent with his trust's announcement in September it planned to open a new CofE secondary school in Grove.

He said: "It is part of a growing relationship we have locally with people who share our views on education and want to be part of the community."

He said in September that the VAT had chosen to open a church school, as opposed to non-denominational, 'to give parents more choice'.

The VAT, which also runs Larkmead secondary school in Abingdon, Charlton Primary School and Wantage CofE School in Wantage, St James in East Hanney, St Nicholas in Childrey and Millbrook School in Grove, is currently based at King Alfred's, where Mr Spiers used to be headteacher.

He said the new office space at the convent would be especially useful once King Alfred's closes its East Site on Springfield Road in the next few years and moves more students to its centre site on Portway.

The sisters have applied for planning permission to covert their studio building, which is Grade II-listed building, into an office.

In the application to Vale of White Horse District Council, the sisters' agent Paul Butt, who lives in Marcham, said: "The sisters are happy to see part of the convent site used in this way, as it is consistent with the long-term involvement of CSMV in their support of education locally."

He said the move would also complement the flats for newly qualified teachers which the community recently started providing.