PUPILS are just months away from walking into the classrooms of a new £19m secondary school in Didcot after its headteacher was handed the keys.

In September classes will begin for the first time at Aureus School in the Great Western Park estate between the A4130 and the Wantage Road.

With the building now complete – bar some finishing touches – headteacher Hannah Wilson said she was 'over the moon'.

She said: "It is quite a strange feeling to know that I am responsible for a £19m building.

"I am the one opening up and locking up every day.

"But it is really exciting to see everything come together.

"I've now recruited all my teaching staff and support staff for when we start in September."

For 10 years Miss Wilson, who was given the keys last week, worked for multi academy trust the Harris Federation and was deputy headteacher for two years at the Harris Academy in Morden, Greater London.

The new school has been commissioned by Oxfordshire County Council and sponsored by the GLF Schools Trust, which has 23 secondary and primary schools in south east England.

It will mainly serve pupils in Great Western Park, which will eventually have 3,300 homes.

Hundreds of families have already moved in.

Miss Wilson added: "We are excited about the wonderful future this school has within the community.

"Our motto ‘nurturing hearts and minds’ will inspire students, staff, parents and community partners.

"I am passionate about educating the whole child and about the holistic aspects of education that are often forgotten in our high accountability system.

"I will make sure that we know each of our students as names, not numbers at Aureus.

"We will also be having yoga and mindfulness classes in our dance studio as part of the holistic approach I want to bring to the school."

However, she is unlikely to hold any major celebration until the youngsters are hard at work.

Miss Wilson said: "What I would really love to do is have a birthday party to celebrate the first month of the school being open to show what the students have achieved.

"I do not want to do anything before that, because it is the students' school and I think it would be far more interesting and beneficial for everyone if the students had their work up on the walls and spoke to people about their experiences."

It will not be until its fifth year that the school is due to reach its capacity of 1,200 students but there are plans to maximise community use of the building in the intervening period.

Miss Wilson said: “I do not want it to go to waste and I am looking into opportunities where we can let out some of the spaces.

"We want the community to be able to come during the weekend and school holidays and make the most of the gym, sports pitches and our flexi-studio.

"We've already got an artist in residence and a charity room."

Plans were initially submitted in 2015 for the state-of-the-art school which has been built on the site where a hoard of gold Roman coins were discovered more than 20 years ago.

This find inspired the school's name, as the aureus was a Roman coin worth 25 pure silver denarii.

Chief executive of GLF Schools Jon Chaloner said: "Schools play such an integral part in building the community around them and Hannah and her team will be making sure that the school meets the needs of this new community in every aspect.

"The building has been handed over so the hard work for the GLF Schools team begins, but we are certain that the future for Aureus is a positive one."

GLF Schools will also be opening a primary school in Great Western Park in September 2018, Aureus Primary, which had previously been called Chalkhill Primary.

For more information visit aureusschool.org