A NEW primary school in the middle of a major Swindon housing development was blessed by the Bishop of Bristol at an official opening ceremony yesterday.

And less than a month after Ridgeway Farm C of E Academy opened its doors the first pupils buried a time capsule filled with memorabilia to give future students an idea of life in 2016.

The 210-place school is the latest academy to be opened by the Diocese of Bristol Academies Trust, which currently owns and runs nine primary school academies in Swindon, Bristol and North Wiltshire.

“Staff from both the new school and the partner CE primary academy in Lydiard Millicent have shown an exceptional commitment to organising the school ready for the children,” said Liz Townend, deputy director of education for the trust.

“The light and spacious building with state of the art technology has enabled attractive learning spaces and a beautiful library area to be created.”

The £3.2 million building has seven state-of-the art classrooms and has been designed to generate some of its own electricity with solar roof panels.

It has been built by construction firm Beard to accommodate an influx of families into the new development at Purton.

Carly Luce, principal of the new school said: “The opening ceremony marks the end of one part of a wonderful adventure and the start of the next. Everyone who is part of the Ridgeway Farm CE Academy family is very thankful for their brand new school.

“It is a wonderful place to learn and grow.”

Marc Bayley, Swindon director for Beard, which helped put together the time capsule, said they [capsules] were “a great way of recording historical items that have special meanings to the sites where they are hidden, and a wonderful way to put history into context by linking current and future generations.”

Class photos, the children’s hand and footprints and accounts of life as a child in the area were included along with pictures of the site when it was a farm and of the completed building.