PUPILS had the honour of laying the first bricks for their new £10 million school in Dorchester.

Work is underway on a new Damers First School at Poundbury, being built to cope with the increase in demand for extra school places.

Youngest pupil at the school, Oscar aged four and oldest pupil Harvey, aged nine, had the honour of laying the first bricks. Their skills as builders were closely scrutinised by their classmates, teachers, parents, councillors and officers from Dorset County Council and the site construction team, who were all invited to the event.

Damers currently operates as a three form entry school and will increase its size to allow four forms of entry, increasing its capacity by 150 places.

Headteacher Catherine Smith said: “It was an incredibly special day for our school community as a whole but particularly for the children who were chosen to represent our school.

"The construction team ensured that the children were made to feel incredibly welcome and important, and rightly so. We were all incredibly excited to walk onto the site for the first time and to see the beginnings of a very exciting new phase in our history.”

Cllr Richard Biggs said: “It was a very exciting day, not only for the children of Damers First School, but for Dorchester as a town.

"The building of this new school at Poundbury will allow us to welcome more pupils to learn in what will be a very highly finished school, accessible for all.”

The new school, due for completion next spring, will provide:

Four reception class bases

16 key stage 1 and key stage 2 class bases

A large hall

A smaller hall

Specialist resource for children with complex communication needs

A multi-use heart space including library facilities

A practical room which can be used for teaching

Toilets, staff room, offices, stores and cloakrooms.

In addition there will be a grass playing field, games courts, formal hard play areas, bike stores and parking spaces for staff. The development will also include a lych-gate at the Great Field entrance and a 'Coach House' housing the plant for a sprinkler system, storage and caretaking facilities. BAM Construction Ltd was appointed to build the school.