CALNE'S secondary school will be reborn in September with a new name, Kingsbury Green Academy - but not everyone is delighted by the choice.

"We could have had a far better name," said local historian Nick Baxter. He believes this was a missed opportunity to celebrate one of the key figures in Calne's history, some of whom played a pivotal role in the history of education such as Calne MPs Thomas Macaulay or Robert Lowe, or Saint Dunstan.

Mr Baxter, who moved to Calne in 2002 and runs the Calne History Facebook page, said Saint Dunstan, from the 10th century, was the greatest educator in the town's history.

"Frankly, there seems little wrong in retaining John Bentley as a name associated with Calne for the last 450 years. Changing the name will not improve the quality of education at John Bentley School," he wrote in a Facebook post.

However Mr Baxter added: "It's not the name I would have gone for, but they could have chosen far worse."

The John Bentley School will cease to exist in July, and a new school will open its doors, albeit in the same place and in the same building. Headteacher Jason Tudor said the school had conducted a series of consultation exercises, talking to staff, students and the community, to enable the school to establish the right identity.

Mr Tudor said: “What pleases me most, is that the name was suggested independently by both students and one of our teachers. Both had conducted some research in to the history of education in Calne and had found that the original site of the grammar school was on the Green in the centre of town.

“The Green is well known for its importance to both education and commerce. However, what we didn’t know, was that the Green was originally known as Kingsbury Green, and if you know Calne well, you will know that Kingsbury Street still runs up to the Green to this day.”

In March last year, John Bentley School was rated overall as requires improvement by Ofsted, and judged as requiring improvement in the categories of effectiveness of leadership, quality of teaching, behaviour and welfare, 16-19 study programmes and outcomes for pupils.

The secondary school will become part of the Royal Wootton Bassett Academies Trust in April.

Mr Tudor added: “We feel that Kingsbury Green Academy has its roots firmly in the fabric of Calne whilst also being a name that we can all be proud to represent as we move forwards into an exciting future.”