Headteacher at the new Castle Mead Primary School Tracy Boulton said she is looking forward to the challenge of building a new community when the school opens in September.

The primary school is being built as part of the Castle Mead development, the new housing development next to Paxcroft Mead, after The Mead Academy Trust was successful in its tender to run a new school in July last year.

Building work at the school, which will initially open with four mixed-age classes, is expected to be completed at the beginning of May, with the academy taking it over in June.

The new school will have its own identity and be inspected separately, but will fall under the umbrella of The Mead Academy Trust, which also runs The Mead Community Primary School in Hilperton, and Wingfield Primary School.

Mrs Boulton said: “One of the big challenges for us is setting up a new community as you have lots of children who don’t know each other and when they are starting to make those new relationships it’s important to give them the right environment.

“The school is made up of bright, spacious classrooms with high ceilings as we feel that provides the best learning environment. It’s a brilliant building, and site manager Michael Gough and his team have done a great job.

“We are in a fortunate position where we have set up a school before and it is important that we draw on that experience when setting up this new school.

“Once the children are here, one of the joys will be thinking about our vision for the school and giving it its own identity. We are due to take it over at the beginning of June and then it will be a case of getting everything ready for September.”

The school will initially provide 210 pupil places, but has been designed to allow for possible extension in the future should the need arise, to allow for 420 school places and a 26-place nursery.

Mrs Boulton, who is currently assistant head at The Mead, added: “I am personally delighted to be head at this school and tasked with setting up this new community. It is a fantastic opportunity for me and I’m really looking forward to getting started.”

Information mornings about the new school will be held at The Mead School’s Hilperton site on May 16 and June 20 from 10-11am, while open days will take place at the new school on July 12 and August 9.

For more information, visit www.themead.wilts.sch.uk