DARTMOUTH became home to the first 'all through' academy school in Devon yesterday as more than 500 pupils walked through its gates for their first day of term.

And school bosses have already set themselves a target to almost double that number of pupils over the coming years.

For the first time the town has its own sixth form.

Until now the school has had to offer its sixth form facilities through South Devon College. As a new academy it has a sixth form in its own right.

At the moment there are only 15 sixth formers on campus but there are plans to increase that to 100, interim principal Sheila Potter revealed.

She said the aim was to win back the pupils from the surrounding village schools who ended up heading off for community colleges and sixth forms at neighbouring Totnes and Kingsbridge.

It was also planned to try to halt the drain of Dartmouth youngsters to the grammar schools in Torbay.

At the moment the school caters for some 500 youngsters aged from three to 18. The aim is to increase that to about 900 — more than 200 primary aged pupils, around 600 secondary age group and about 100 aged over 16.

"Our first task will be to look at all those young people who leave our partner primary schools to go to places like Kingsbridge and Totnes," Ms Potter said.

"We need to hold the youngsters who live in the Dartmouth area so that they come to a Dartmouth all through school."

As for the youngsters who ended up in Torbay schools, she said: "Our standards will be on such a level that it will be second nature to send youngsters here as their school of choice."

Miss Potter is contracted to the new academy's sponsor, EAct, to see the school through the transition stage from primary and secondary school to one single academy campus.

She has already done the same for eight separate academies since 2004, including one in Northumberland which involved combining seven first schools, two middle schools and a high school into one academy over five campuses.

The school has already advertised for a permanent head teacher, who it is hoped will be appointed by the end of this month.

Earlier this year Dartmouth looked like being in line for a £10 million Government handout to pay for a brand new school complex to house the Dartmouth Academy — either on the existing site or an entirely new campus.

While some school building programmes were axed altogether, the Dartmouth project was put under review — the results of which will probably not be known until the Government spending review in October.

"We are very hopeful still," Ms Potter said. "We are waiting until October to find out what is happening. It will not stop us being everything we have said we want to be, but it would help."

The new academy has imposed a dress code on all the pupils, who now have a black with pale blue piping uniform consisting of blazer and tie.

Ms Potter said that every one of the younger-age pupils had turned up in uniform for their first day and all but three of the older pupils had done the same.

The ones who didn't only failed because of problems over the correct sizes being available.

"They looked and behaved like they were in a professional working environment, which helps them to feel there is a standard being set," she said. "It was a real pleasure to see them."

The school is still working closely with South Devon College, which is one of its partners along with the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth.