STAFF and students celebrated the official opening of Salisbury Sixth Form College (S6C) today.

The college, which has around 100 students, marked the occasion with a special assembly, during which the principal Simon Firth, chairman of governors Neil Owen and Salisbury MP John Glen addressed students and guests.

In his speech Mr Owen spoke of the film Field of Dreams, which includes the quote ‘if you build it, they will come’, adding: “Just over two years ago a number of governors, along with the headteachers of the three Laverstock schools had a dream that we could have a sixth form here in Salisbury that would give students a real alternative to the grammar schools and stop the rest of the students having to take long bus rides to schools in Hampshire.

“Many of you probably came to one of our open evenings in the Guildhall where we said for you to trust us that by September 2014 we would be open and by September 2015, that we will have a brand new building. And here we are in our temporary building open for business. And in a few weeks we will be able to show you the plans for the new building.

“It has taken a huge amount of determination, hard work and belief to get to where we are today.”

A group of parents, teachers and governors, with additional support from the Laverstock secondary schools, submitted an application to the Department of Education for a college with specialism in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) at the end of 2012.

They applied for funding under the free schools initiative and were supported by the New Schools Network (NSN) development programme, which supports bids where pupils are at a risk of educational disadvantage due to the lack of provision.

Around 750 young people travel out of Salisbury on a daily basis to access post-16 education, with some students travelling up to 56 miles a day.

New student Nathaniel Walker, 16, who came from St Joseph’s School, is studying history, law, geography and PE. He said: “I had offers outside Salisbury but transport was a key thing because it costs so much money.

“I came to an open evening and really enjoyed meeting the staff who were enthusiastic about their subjects and it’s been brilliant so far.”

Mr Firth, who project managed the setting up of a new sixth form in Tower Hamlets, said: “In the first year of a new sixth form the challenge is always how many students you will get - I am really happy with the number we have and we will grow and grow.

“Next year we are aiming to have an additional 200 to 250 students, with a total of 400, our capacity, by year three or four. “We are a dedicated A-level college which is something not available anywhere else in Salisbury – our teachers just teach A-levels and a small number of subsidiary BTECs.

“Our tutoring and pastoral support also marks us out with tutors providing one to one sessions with students monitoring their progress and attendance.”

The new college, currently based in facilities at Wiltshire College Salisbury, will move into a new purpose-built campus in Tollgate Road in September 2015.

Students can enrol in the current year until the end of September. For more details visit s6c.org.uk/