A college principal is proposing the creation of a 'superschool' for Wantage and Grove.

Bernard Clarke, of King Alfred's Community and Sports College in Wantage, has written to the new Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Charles Clarke, asking for support.

A 1998 Ofsted report recommended changing the layout of King Alfred's, which has three separate sites and sees Key Stage 4 pupils alternating between centres each day.

The principal wants the college to be based on a single site, and has not ruled out the possibility that this could be in Grove. The former airfield earmarked for development in the local plan was one possibility, he said.

Addressing a meeting of primary school pupils' parents, Mr Clarke said: "If 1,000 more houses were built, that would bring 150 to 200 children into the secondary school, so we are looking at a college of about 2,000 people.

"I could quite easily see that becoming a very important area of Wantage and Grove and actually bridging the communities."

He added he thought it was highly unlikely that a separate secondary school for Grove would be built.

He said: "We have just about got 28 students to take music at GCSE. If you reduce the numbers at King Alfred's and have a separate school at Grove, who is going to be able to sustain music as a GCSE course?"

A report on schooling in the area is being drawn up by Oxfordshire County Council.