PRINCE William was otherwise engaged but that did not stop a right royal celebration taking place when a village school opened a new classroom.

Instead of Prince William, who is credited for helping Chirton Primary, near Devizes, grow in numbers pensioner John Cannings was guest of honour.

Mr Cannings, who was a pupil at Chirton Primary, near Devizes, in the 1940s declared the new building open on Friday and then shared stories of his school days with the children.

The opening of a third classroom was something that only a couple of years ago associate head Amy Bekker-Wrench could only dream about.

For back in 1913 the school had only 19 pupils and was under threat of closure.

The school believes letters sent to Prince William and Kate suggesting Chirton as an ideal school for Prince George as part of English persuasive writing task for helping its growth.

It received national publicity when each child received a personal reply from Kensington Palace. On Friday Mrs Bekker-Wrench joked that she was disappointed that Prince William was unavailable to open the new building.

She said: "Thankfully, Mr John Cannings, an ex-pupil of the school who still lives in the village came along to do the honours. Mr Cannings joined the school in 1940 and enjoyed sharing some of his memories with the children. Each child released a golden balloon, representing 50, and attached a personal message to them explaining why our little school is so special to them."

Mrs Bekker-Wrench said that children in years two, three and four were using the new classroom. She said: "The extra space now means that we have smaller classes once again, leading the children to each have valuable learning time with the class teacher and TA on both a one to one and small group basis."

Teacher Kim Noad has been appointed to take on the new class and has embraced the school's ethos of a little school with a big heart. Pupils have been involved in giving names to the three classrooms. Chris in Year 6 was the winner, thinking up the names of Joy, Faith and Courage class which Mrs Bekker-Wrench said fitted perfectly with the Big Heart ethos.

Mrs Bekker-Wrench said: "Since writing to the Duke and Duchess to try to persuade them that Prince George should attend our school, we have more than doubled in size, growing from 19 to the magic number of 50.

“I promised the children, who wrote to Prince William, that I would host a party if we ever reached 50 pupils in our school – and they never forgot.“We are pleased that, due to continued growth, Wiltshire Council has granted us a new building, meaning we are, for the first time, a three-class school.

"I thank everyone who has supported us – staff, parents, governors and local community. My biggest thanks goes to the children.”