LET there be light, or so said the headmistress of St Swithun's Junior School.

Pim Grimes is showing the Chronicle round the school's £12 million new building. She can't stop smiling when she looks at the windows.

"It's probably better than I'd hoped," she says, "even more than what we'd hoped for, for the children, bringing in the light."

It's a sunny day, and glass panes two storeys high allow light to flood into the new classrooms, which include a kitchen, DT workshop, music room and coding suite. The colourful outdoor area is no playground - fun as it looks, it is also integral to learning.

"We wanted to bring the outside in, because we're in rural Hampshire," Ms Grimes says.

Pre-prep pupils are a corridor's width from the outside, giving this prestigious private school the feel of a forest retreat.

Despite expanding from 188 pupils to 256, class sizes are down to an average of 16 thanks to the recruitment of five new teachers.

Many here are specialists, taking pupils out of their 'home' class to make best use of the building. Pre-prep children as young as three spend 10 hours a week with specialist teachers.

"These facilities are wonderful but the excellence comes from the excellent teachers," Ms Grimes says, keen to praise her staff as much as the governors who helped fund the project. "Now we're able to recruit because we've got the facilities."

Staff are still getting used to their new surroundings - Ms Grimes has to search for the light switch when showing the Chronicle around one of the classrooms.

And the walls and floors have yet to pick up the scrapes and flecks of mud that give a school its character.

It will only be a matter of time. When the Chronicle visits, children are playing hockey on new courts while a reception class marches outside in heir wellies, grinning at the thought of getting stuck in.

In their old building, a dark warehouse-like block waiting for demolition, they often forgot they were on the edge of South Downs National Park.

Phase two, including a sports hall and performing arts space, opens in April.

Designed to restore the campus's original 1930s design - a central building and a wing on either side - these facilities put St Swithun's right at home.