Work has started on a £2.2m state-of-the-art English and media building at a secondary school.

Now Wheatley Park School, in Holton, has launched a campaign to raise £20,000 to equip the new building for the school's 1,300 students.

Head Kate Curtis said: "We're very much looking forward to the opening of this new centre as it will give life to so many new creative projects.

"Some of our students will be working as project partners with Kingerlee, our builders, in monitoring the progress of the construction during the coming months."

It is anticipated it will take 48 weeks for the building to be finished and the new classrooms and media suites are expected to be in use from January 2009.

The building has been designed by Oxford Architects to be eco-friendly, with rainwater tanks used for flushing toilets, overhanging eaves to help reduce temperatures during the summer, and a heating system using renewable energy stored in the ground, which will be reversed to help cool the building during the summer.

The bulk of the new centre has been paid for by Oxfordshire County Council, although the school's parent teacher association needs to raise the money to equip the centre.

PTA chairman Sarah Moorhouse said: "It is a state-of-the-art building in lots of ways, including the use of the space inside which was decided in conjunction with some of the students of the school.

"It looks very innovative and from another point of view it's actually very eco-friendly."

She added: "Although it will be decorated inside there won't be any chairs, tables, whiteboards or computers so the PTA is raising money to equip it."

To kick off the fundraising, a Christmas craft fair will be held at the school on Saturday, between 11am and 1pm.

The major event will be a skills and promises auction in March 2008 - for which pledges have already started to come in.