Graven Hill: School planned for self-build development

The Graven Hill development now has 400 complete homes

The details of a new school, due to be built at the site of a large self-build community, have been released.

Work on the primary school at Graven Hill will begin in August, amid a development that currently has 400 complete homes.

These include 164 that were self-built, and 140 that were custom-built.

Cherwell District Council bought the former Ministry of Defence site in Bicester, Oxfordshire, in 2014 to build 1,900 homes.

The school is due to open in September 2023 and will serve 420 pupils, aged four to 11.

It will have 12 classrooms, specialist facilities for art, design and technology, and more than 13,000 sqm (42,651 sqft) of pitches and games areas.

The building has been designed to Net Zero Carbon principles and will include solar panels which will provide power to the local grid when the school is not in use.

Residents can buy plots on the site and build the house of their dreams

Calum Miller, cabinet member for finance at Oxfordshire County Council, which will operate the school, said: "I'm delighted that work is about to commence on the delivery of Graven Hill primary school for September 2023.

"A school is at the heart of a community and I'm glad parents and children at Graven Hill can now look forward with confidence to their new school."

Karen Curtin, managing director of the Graven Hill Village Development Company, said the school was an "exciting part" of the new development.

She said it would be delivered before the 550th home at the site was occupied, and would "promote collaboration and flexible learning" and "enhance the great sense of community spirit".

The new school is due to open at Graven Hill in September 2023

After it was purchased, Graven Hill was divided into individual plots, with the first phase released to buyers in 2016.

Potential residents can opt to self-build, or personalise new homes, with 30% of the site made up of affordable housing.

New builds and apartments form the remainder of the development.