RISING above the houses in Banbury Road, a new project that will transform the experience of pupils at a top Oxford school is beginning to take shape.

D'Overbroeck's new sixth form teaching building, hall and boarding house at 333 Banbury Road and the opposite side of the road are on track to be finished by summer.

Pupils can expect to find an impressive combination of old and new architectural features and facilities and the site, which incorporates an 1823 villa that was formerly a Masonic lodge.

Principal Sami Cohen will not get to sit in the headmaster's office at the new site, as he will retire at the end of the current academic year.

But he has been heavily involved in the project since the beginning and said he was thrilled to see things progressing on time.

He said: "I come up here and take a look every week and every time I come there is more to see.

"It is a pleasure to see. It is a huge leap forward.

"It will give us a single site and make more space and much better facilities than we have at the moment."

The teaching building will include laboratories, classrooms, a common room and cafeteria, while the original villa will house a staff room and staff offices.

The hall will provide both dining facilities and a 180-seat auditorium.

Mr Cohen said: "We have very wide corridors here as we want things to be as flexible as possible.

"They can be used in a variety of ways.

"Our drama teacher was very keen to have a room with no windows.

"But other than that the building is very light.

"When I first met the architect he said to me that he liked to design school buildings that are so light that you could almost work in them without electric lights.

"That is a feature of this building."

The teaching building will cater for 350 sixth form students, with the boarding house able to accommodate 60.

It consists of a boys' house on one side and a girls' house on the other with a communal area connecting the two.

The hall will fulfill a number of functions at different times.

Mr Cohen said: "During the day it will be a dining hall but it will double up as a performance space.

"It also has music rooms and a recording studio.

"Food will be cooked here on the premises and all the boarders will come and have their dinner here in the evening."

Other features included in the teaching building are a photographic dark room and music practice room.

The project is set to be officially ready to open in September 2017 in time for the new academic year.

Lord Mayor of Oxford Mohammed Altaf-Khan was among those who toured the building on Friday.

He said: "This is very good news for the city.

"It will change so many people's lives in the coming generations.

"We have a great reputation for education here in Oxford and people come from all over the world so this is another piece of good news."

D'Overbroeck's will hold an open day on Saturday, February 4 from 10am to 1pm at The Swan Building at 111 Banbury Road for sixth formers and at the Leckford Road site for years seven to 11.