SCHOOL pupils will have "a rainbow of learning opportunities", according to their headteacher, despite having a delayed start to their term.

Katrina Wilcox, St Bartholomew's CE Primary School head, is focusing on the future after pupils started back late to their desks on Monday last week.

Youngsters were due to return to school on Tuesday, September 6.

However, safety concerns about ongoing building work forced school bosses and Worcestershire County Council education chiefs into a rethink.

Mrs Wilcox now wants to get on with making the Stourport school, formed by a merger of Areley Common First and Windmill First and Middle schools, a good learning environment for its 292 pupils.

She said: "The move was like the TV programme Challenge Anneka. It nearly killed us but that was the past and we need to move on. I'm a positive person."

The school's foundation unit and Key Stage One pupils, between three and seven, will be able to learn in new outdoor learning areas, which also include wooden play equipment.

Years five and six had already met at specially arranged buddy-building sessions at Ross-on-Wye and Wales, in July, before starting the new term.

A herb garden is already blossoming outside the kitchen and planting of a vegetable patch is set to begin, with the resulting greens to be used in meals prepared on site.

The new pool at the school's main entrance, on Princess Way, has also been filled with fish from the pond at Windmill First.

Mrs Wilcox said: "We've got a good school and it's going to be fantastic. We're St Barts, we're smart and we learn from the heart - that's our jokey motto."

Some challenges remain, with the former Windmill First buildings still to be demolished to make way for a new children's centre.

Young families living nearby will be able to arrange meetings with midwives, police officers or doctors at the premises but the centre will not be ready for up to a year.