13370/7TV VET Trude Mostue believes more people of her generation would have been keen to study science if they had had facilities like those just opened at Devizes School.

Ms Mostue told the Gazette that the new science block at the school, which she officially opened on Tuesday, was the best she had ever seen.

She said: "The more I see, the more impressed I am. It almost makes me want to go back to school.

"I have always been interested in science but it was taught in such a dull way, it must have put a lot of people off.

"Surroundings like this will make more young people want to get into science."

Ms Mostue came to prominence in the BBC TV series Vets in Training, which followed a group of trainee vets studying at Bristol University, and then in Vets in Practice, which saw her working in Bath and Wiltshire.

Ms Mostue, who has two young children, agreed to open the new science block after being approached by school governor and local vet Ed Davies, a business friend of Ms Mostue's husband Howard Thomas.

Ms Mostue is hoping to open her own veterinary clinic in the Bath area in the next few months.

The £900,000 Devizes School science block was financed by the sale of part of the school playing field for housing.

Headmaster Malcolm Irons told guests on Tuesday: "At the time the sale of the land was a bit controversial, but I hope everyone can now see it was money well spent."

He thanked the school's governors for pushing through the project, the architect, Owen Jordan, for bringing the project in on time and on budget, and the contractors, Bluestone plc, for being so considerate during the building work.

Lessons had continued in science classrooms while the work went on all around.