HAVING taught generations of the town's children, St Edburg's CE Primary School boasts the title of Bicester's oldest primary school.

Its modern exterior belies this fact, however, as the school made an exciting move to a new building on the Kingsmere estate in January 2016.

The school itself was founded more than 170 years ago in a Victorian building next to its namesake, St Edburg's Church.

Since the transition to pastures new, pupil numbers have ballooned from 157 to more than 300, with the addition of a nursery.

Headteacher Margaret Kunzer said: "We love our new location and it's great to welcome new children and families.

"We have more opportunities to be outside - we have a huge field to do our Daily Mile on as well as a multi-use games pitch and a large playground."

The Daily Mile is a national project encouraging children to run, walk or jog for 15 minutes every day in their school.

Mrs Kunzer said pupils are also now able to better embrace the outdoors thanks to the forest school facility, a small copse next to its grounds.

She added: "Eventually we would love to open an outdoor classroom where all of our children and local families can access activities outside, designed to make learning fun and promote wellbeing."

Despite having relocated, the school is still only a stone's throw from the church and has retained the close partnership.

Mrs Kuntzer said: "Our church connection is very important to us and the children regularly attend a service at the church.

"Sometimes our church friends come to us and even stay for lunch.

"At special times of the year we have prayer spaces that give all of us time for quiet reflection - it's a very popular space for the children."

On top of its relationship with the church, Mrs Kunzer said the school values its 'strong links' with Kingsmere Residence Association.

Pupils helped the association to campaign for a controlled pedestrian crossing in Middleton Stoney Road, a key route for accessing the school.

At the core of the school's community network are parents and families of pupils

Mrs Kunzer said: "We have lots of events for parents and had a huge turnout for a recent open evening where there were exciting challenges for all the family to complete.

"Our school pupil ambassadors did a marvellous job of showing people around."