PLANS for hundreds of homes could mean village pupils are turned away from Wallingford School, its headteacher has warned.

Will Wyllis said Benson, Cholsey, Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, Shillingford and Warborough pupils will be turned away if its catchment area is redrawn to cope with a big increase in the town’s school-age population.

District councillors last month agreed to allow 400 more homes at Slade End Farm, to the west of the town, a move expected to add about 150 pupils to the 1,145 roll at the already over-subscribed school.

Mr Wyllis said: “At the moment, pupils from Benson, Cholsey, Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, Shillingford and Warborough are in the catchment area.

“As a result, there is a good mix of pupils between the villages and the town, and I would prefer it if that did not change. If the education authority does decide to redraw its boundaries it will be people in the villages who suffer.”

An alternative would be to add more buildings, he said. But Oxfordshire County Council has a freeze on building projects and would only say that it will “work with” the St George’s Road school.

Other secondary schools in the area include Didcot Girls' School, St Birinus School, Didcot, Icknield Community College in Watlington, and Langtree School at Woodcote.

Mr Wyllis said: “The school has been over-subscribed for the past four years and last year 42 families were turned away.

“There are several ways the school could cope but we need to know numbers and the earlier we plan for this the better.”

One answer would be to put a building on a playing field next to the school’s former site off St George’s Road, he said. Teaching was split between the two sites until 1997.

School governor and former head boy Imran Lokhon said: “Building so many new homes in the town is bound to have an effect on the demand for places and this whole subject needs to be looked at very carefully.

“I would hate to see pupils in adjoining villages forced out to schools in Didcot and the surrounding area.”

Council spokesman Louise Mendonca said: “We are aware that additional housing will increase the demand for secondary school places in Wallingford and we will work with the headteacher and governors to look at possible solutions."

The homes plan was agreed by South Oxfordshire District Council. It also proposes up to 9,000 homes for Didcot and 530 for Thame, which could be built up to 2027.