A DECORATED alumnus spoke at the official opening of St Crispin's School's new sixth form centre.

On Thursday, September 28 guests, staff and students gathered at the London Road establishment to welcome in and view the state-of-the-art centre.

Following speeches from chair of governors Paul Jeffrey and headboy Toby Wilson and music performed by sixth formers, former pupil Kate Bryan took to the stage.

Ms Bryan attended the school's sixth form before studying at Warwick University, becoming a published author, presenting art programmes on BBC and Sky TV and, in 2016, becoming Head of Collections for Soho House globally.

Headteacher, Ginny Rhodes said “I am deeply appreciative of the generosity of the Local Authority for our new Sixth Form. The new building is an utter delight and brilliantly supports post 16 teaching and learning.”

The centre was designed by Faithful & Gould and Atkins Global and built by Francis Construction.

It provides year 12 and 13 students with their own teaching, study and meeting spaces.

A feature of the centre is the double-height atrium which gives a light and spacious socialising and study area, and an assembly and presentation space.

Will Barrett, managing director of Francis Construction, said: “We are delighted to have handed over such an exciting building that delivers an inspiring teaching environment and signifies a long term commitment to the Sixth Form at St Crispin’s.

"It was great to meet the students at the opening and understand how much the project meant to them. The building starts its working life now following a successful, collaborative inception working closely with the school, the design teams and Wokingham Borough Council.”

St. Crispin’s holds a sixth form open evening on November 2.