A "UNIQUE" free school which will cater for pupils throughout their education is aiming to open for students next year.

Grove Academy, an all-through school put together by the Slough Association of Secondary Headteachers (SASH), is aiming to open in September 2017 to provide education for children from three to 19.

The school, previously known as SASH 2, will follow on from the trust's first school Ditton Park Academy, which opened two years ago.

A site for the school has yet to be confirmed, but the trust is aiming to put the school in either central or western Slough, as it is here where they have identified a need for the school.

Jo Rockall, chairman of the SASH and headteacher at Herschel Grammar School, said: "Discussions are still ongoing about the site and we are very optimistic that the Education Funding Agency and Slough Borough Council and various other people are working together to find a solution.

"It is a unique school. In Slough we have faith schools, single sex schools and grammar schools, so there is a nice range of different types of schools so parents have choices. The all-through school will give a different choice to parents."

When full, Grove Academy will be a 1,940 place co-educational school, including a 200 place sixth form.

It will be the first all-through school in Slough to grow from reception upwards, and will take in four forms of entry at reception and six forms of entry at Year 7 when it opens.

It will open at a temporary site initially, as did Ditton Park Academy when it opened in Wellington Street while its new site is being built near to Upton Court Park.

The school had hoped to open this September, but delays in identifying a site meant that it had to be put back a year.

Principal Andrea Fricker was appointed a year-and-a-half ago, and she has been working as interim headteacher at Parlaunt Park Primary and Eton Porny School in the mean time.

Ms Fricker, who has lived in Slough for 30 years and her three children have been through the education system in the town, said: "I am really excited about it.

"The whole concept of developing a school from reception up was a real opportunity to develop an ethos and values right from the beginning.

"It is a fabulous challenge and I am really looking forward to it. Yes it seems like it is going to be big but we are going to organise it into smaller chunks across age groups to make it a teaching and learning community."

The academy will be holding an information day today (Monday) from 3-8pm at Chalvey Community Centre in The Green, Chalvey.