A former Beefeater restaurant and Premier Inn in Abingdon is being converted into classrooms in a £4m construction scheme.

The Unicorn School in Marcham Road wants to double in size and last year bought the former Premier Inn and Ock Mill Beefeater restaurant opposite its main site.

The Premier Inn chain opened a new hotel last September close to the Marcham interchange, which meant the old hotel and former restaurant were no longer needed.

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The purchase of the buildings from Whitbread PLC, the parent company of the Premier Inn chain, will allow The Unicorn School to double its pupil numbers from 120 to 240 over the next few years.

The school has specialised for over 30 years helping children with neurodiversity challenges, including dyslexia, dyspraxia, autism and speech and language issues.

(Image: Andy Ffrench) Andrew Day, headteacher at The Unicorn School for nine years, has now become executive headteacher, and will lead the construction project.

He said: "This is a £4m project and work will start on the Premier Inn building this week to convert it into classrooms.

"We hope that about 40 to 50 pupils studying for GCSEs will be able to move over to this site by September 2025.

"The first phase will be work on the Premier Inn and then work will start on the Beefeater building, which is Grade II listed, so it will have to be carefully adapted.

"About £2m will be spent converting each building, and there will be staff rooms and offices in the listed part of the former restaurant."

(Image: Andy Ffrench) Mr Day, who received the MBE in the new year for services to education, said the school has also bought an acre of land behind the Premier Inn site, for forest school classes and other activities.

He added that parents and pupils have taken part in some fundraising activities to contribute towards the cost of the building work.

The headteacher added that the school's main site was "at capacity" with 120 pupils.

"We get 350 enquiries for places every year - with these new buildings we will be able to double in size and take 240 pupils eventually," he said.

(Image: Andy Ffrench) Mr Day added that there was a lot of interest in the former Premier Inn site - and the Beefeater restaurant.

"A couple walked in the other day and asked if they could book a table - we had to tell them that the restaurant was now closed," he said.

Construction firm Wooldridge & Simpson will soon be on site.

Matt Small, formerly a governor at The Unicorn School, has taken on the interim headteacher's role.

Mr Small has more than 20 years' teaching experience and has thrown himself into the new role.

He has enjoyed getting to know the pupils, parents and staff at school, and Briggs the Therapy Dog.

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About the author 

Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.

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