ROYAL fever is mounting in Oxford as it was announced the Duchess of Cambridge will visit the city next week.

Hundreds of people are expected to line the streets when Kate meets children at Rose Hill Primary School and Oxford Spires Academy, in East Oxford.

The Duchess will travel to the city on Tuesday, less than a year into her official Royal role.

She is visiting in her position as patron of The Art Room, a charity which uses art to engage with children who might otherwise be excluded from mainstream education.

For keen Royalist Tracey Veal the visit is a dream come true.

The 48-year-old, from Garsington, was all set to go to London for William and Kate’s wedding last April but was too ill to make the trip.

She used to work in The Art Room and is the assistant special educational needs co-ordinator at Rose Hill Primary School.

She said: “There’s such a buzz around the school, and the children will line up outside the school waving flags.

“For me it’s a case of ‘thank goodness I’m going to see her in the end’.”

Kate will spend the morning in Rose Hill and the afternoon at the Oxford Spires Academy in East Oxford, although exact timings of her visit have not been released.

The Art Room, which began in Oxford in 2002 and now works with 270 children a week, has bases at both schools.

In Rose Hill, eight local Year Three pupils will be joined by Kate as they work on the famous Edward Lear poem The Owl and The Pussycat.

The Duchess, who will also meet secondary school children as part of the visit, will be able to be seen by onlookers as she arrives and leaves the venues.

A Clarence House spokesman said: “We cannot be specific about what time she will be there but the idea is there is some process in place for the public to see her.”

Clare Keep, The Art Room manager at Oxford Spires, said: “We are absolutely delighted that the Duchess is coming to see what we do.

“The students will be presenting the Duchess with a bunch of flowers and showing her the work they have done this term.”

The charity’s founder Juli Beattie said: “This is an enormous endorsement by Her Royal Highness.

“The charity could not have got a larger endorsement. She did art and understands the importance of therapy.”

She added: “It will be a wonderful opportunity for us to describe in greater depth to The Duchess our work and how we use art to raise the self-esteem and confidence of the young people we support.”

Bill Buckingham, 90, from Court Farm Road in Rose Hill, said: “There will be big crowds because she’s so popular.

“She’s got that kind of star appeal, very much like Diana.”

Adam Fisher from Thames Valley Police said local officers would have very little involvement in the visit.