28782/2A SCHOOL governor fulfilled a promise she made two years ago when she opened a new sports hall and dining room at a Westbury secondary school.

Judith Curtis performed the honours for the £1.3m project last week to officially usher in a new era for Matravers Secondary School.

Work began on the two buildings in September 2003 and was completed over the summer holidays, and headteacher Nigel Gilhespy said they have already transformed life at the school.

"Two years ago at our auction of promises she Mrs Curtis bid for the honour of the opening. She put forward a significant sum, which proved successful," he said.

"It makes a huge difference because we are able to do things in PE that we weren't able to do before. We can now use the facilities for sports like basketball and netball.

"The new dining hall is already playing a big part because it can sit 200 kids whereas before we could only fit in 120. It's been a full two-and-a-half years from the first meeting to where we are today."

The new buildings have sparked an internal reshuffle to make the most of the extra space.

The old dining room has become the reprographics department, the former staff room is now a computer room and the old reprographics department has become a sixth form facility.

Matravers has almost 1,000 pupils and with numbers set to rise in the next few years Wiltshire County Council is already planning further expansion.