THERE is now just over a week to go before staff at Didcot’s University Technical College welcome pupils for their first lessons.

Monday, September 7, will be the first day of term for students who have signed up to attend the £10.5m specialist college on the Great Western Park estate.

Final preparations are under way for UTC Oxfordshire, which will offer science and engineering courses for about 600 pupils aged 14 to 19.

The school, an academy, is funded by central government, and is not under local authority control.

At first it will offer 140 places, and principal Owain Johns said these will be for 90 year 10 students, aged 14, and 50 students in the sixth form.

The college will prepare students for careers in science and engineering by offering specialist qualifications, projects and work placements alongside GCSEs and A-Levels.

Mr Johns said: “This school has been two years in the making, from initial consultation to beginning construction and recruiting our first students.

“We are excited to be so close to opening and can’t wait to get our first term under way.

“We are extremely grateful to the design and construction teams who have worked so hard to keep the building work on track to create this fantastic new facility.

“The school will provide an ideal learning environment in which students can prepare for careers in science and engineering.”

Work on the new building began last August and phase one of building work is complete, with phase two due for completion in October.

The curriculum has been designed with the support of industry and educational partners including Mini Plant Oxford, RM Education, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, Reading University and Royal Holloway, University of London. The school’s lead sponsor is Activate Learning, which also runs City of Oxford College in Oxpens Road and Blackbird Leys, Oxford, and Banbury and Bicester College.

In May Wantage MP Ed Vaizey, whose constituency includes Didcot, joined Mr Johns for a tour of the site.

He said at the time that the UTC would be a fantastic partnership between the science and technology-based employers in Science Vale in his constituency, adding that it showed a “really innovative approach to education”.

Proposals for Bicester Technology Studio, a new 300-place school for Bicester, are being developed by Banbury and Bicester College, and it is expected to open in September 2016.

Teenagers starting in September at the UTC in Didcot will be able to study for GCSEs, BTEC qualifications and A-Levels, alongside a chosen specialism.

Mr Johns, a father-of-three from Horspath, near Oxford, was appointed principal by Activate Learning last year.

The headteacher said he wanted the UTC to have a good working relationship with other schools in the area, including St Birinus School in Didcot and Didcot Girls’ School.

The number of pupils from Didcot and the surrounding five-mile area, from any year, will be limited to 30 per cent of the intake of the year, in order to reduce the impact on local schools.

The school is expecting to reach its capacity of 600 pupils in three years’ time.