TWENTY years ago a hoard of gold coins was unearthed in a field on the edge of Didcot.

Now, two decades on from the exciting find, pupils will have the opportunity to make their own discoveries at the town’s first mixed secondary school.

The aureus was a gold coin from ancient Rome and now plans have been submitted to build Aureus Secondary School on a site close tothe hoard discovery at Great Western Park, west of Didcot.

The academy will serve more than 3,300 homes planned for the estate between the A4130 and the Wantage Road, and hundreds of families have already moved in.

Subject to planning permission from Vale of White Horse District Council, the school will open in September 2017 and accommodate 1,200 pupils, with a first year intake of 240 students.

Government rules dictate that all new schools must be academies or free schools, meaning it will be independent of county council control.

Oxford Mail:

County councillor Nick Hards said he was excited by the Aureus project

Oxfordshire County Council cabinet member for education Melinda Tilley said: “We need more schools in the county and this will provide for the new children from Great Western Park. I think this secondary school will really benefit the surrounding community.”

The development will involve the construction of the school, car parking, sports pitches and a multi-use games area.

The new building will be three storeys and feature three wings to create a U-shape around a courtyard overlooking playing fields.

It will be the first mixed-sex school in Didcot and will be next to to the University Technical College, which is due to open nest month (September).

The GLF Schools multi-academy trust will run the school, which it said was being build by the county council. GLF chief executive officer Jon Chaloner said: “Schools play such an integral part in building the community around them and binding people together, so local residents have to be sure that they’re entrusting that role to someone who is capable of fulfilling it.

“That’s why Aureus is a huge opportunity for us. It’s also why we’re so keen to continue meeting and talking to potential parents, so we can find out what it is that they’re looking for in an education provider, and also so that they can see the kind of success we’ve had elsewhere.”

Oxfordshire county councillor for Didcot West Nick Hards said he was excited by the prospect of the school.

He added: “I suggested the name of the school be called Aureus after a hoard of silver and gold coins were found where the school will be built. It was found by a woman from Didcot and I put an appeal out for it to have that name. I hope the coins can be displayed in the new glass entrance.

“The building is an interesting design. There is a lot of glass and it will have a lovely display area at the front.

“The school will have to share facilities and expertise with the technical college but this may benefit the pupils.”

Mr Hards said his main concern was parking and traffic around the new school, and the distance it was away from the rest of Didcot.

He added: “I’m very enthusiastic about it, but my worry is what I always worry about at this stage.I suspect there are going to be parking and traffic problems around the school at drop-off times and pick-up times, but I think you see the same problem with any school in the country.”

Oxford Mail:

This is the stash of Roman gold coins – which were found on the site of where the new school will be built – and are extremely uncommon accoring to the British Museum.
They were discovered by a woman from Didcot in 1995, but experts at the British Museum said the coins were buried about AD 160-169.  The 126 gold coins that were found were the equivalent to 10-and-a-half years of a soldier’s pay at the time they were buried.
   Picture: The Trustees of the British Museum