A MURAL by students at a Weymouth secondary school is set to take pride of place at a D-Day heritage centre.

The Castletown D-Day Centre is set to open on Portland in January.

Castletown was famously used as an embarkation point for the Normandy landings in June 1944.

Students from All Saints School have now teamed up with the museum to put together a high quality mural to commemorate the launch of the D-Day landings. It is set to be a prominent part of the building when it opens.

The school said students are “extremely proud” of their efforts and found the research in to the history of Castletown extremely interesting.

Head of Art, Brian Smith, said the painting had a “real impact” on the students.

The centre will show visitors what it was like to live on Portland during the way by taking visitors though a reproduction of the wartime dockside and on to a landing craft. People will then disembark on the ‘other side’ amongst injured, post D-Day.

There will be real armaments, a life-sized replica Mk IX Spitfire and Sherman M4A4 tank and other WWII vehicles.

It will start by opening at weekends before opening fully in March.

Mr Smith said: “It’s always nice to make a contribution to the community. The involvement of Artwey, the D-Day centre on Portland and the school made it a very worthwhile project. “ As reported in the Echo, a tank saved from a scrapyard in France has been placed outside the heritage centre.

It was lowered in to place by a crane and has pride of place outside the centre.

This spent six months being refurbished in Normandy but will now be one of the many attractions at the centre.

The centre will feature a multiple channel audio system to enhance the experience.

The heritage centre is the brainchild of businessman Derek Luckhurst from Agincare, which has a base at Castletown.

He is hoping to give something back to the Castletown area with the centre.

People will be able to climb in to vehicles and use replicas of guns and put on helmets to experience what it might have been like.