Despite pouring rain Prince Andrew arrived in an upbeat mood to Truro this morning to officially open the £24million new premises of Richard Lander School.

Laughing and joking about the weather with head teacher Trevor Coldman and chairman of the governors Barry Tripp, the Duke of York toured the new school buildings at Gloweth before unveiling a plaque to mark their opening.

During his visit the Duke met and chatted with a variety of pupils, who spoke about projects that were carried out at the school, including surfboard making and the Business Enterprise scheme, in which pupils produced and marketed their own products - in this case, scarves.

He showed a particular interest in the different types of surfboard and joked with pupils in the Business Enterprise group about the finance director getting everything she wanted from the managing director of the group. A pupil in the group then presented him with two scarves for his daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugene.

Afterwards, Lily English, managing director of the group, said: "It was really nice actually. It was a lot more casual than I expected it to be."

Taz Thomas, sales director, added: "I didn't think he'd be so down-to-earth."

The Duke then moved on to see a short performance by six year seven pupils, who staged a version Charles Causley's poem The Ballad of Charlotte Dymond, about her murder.

Abigail Bowen, who took the role of Charlotte, said: "I like acting and it was nice. I was a bit nervous, but mostly excited."

This was followed by performances in the school hall by four of the school's five choirs, accompanied by dances. One of the highlights of the singing was a rendition of sing Purcell's Birthday Ode O Come Ye Sons of Art, conducted by the school's head of music and Cornish Bard Russell Pascoe.

Shortly before leaving, the Duke was presented with gifts as thanks for his visit - a surfboard plaque made by design and technology teacher Richard Scott and a large bar of locally-made chocolate with the Richard Lander School logo.

Unveiling the plaque to officially declare the school opening, the Duke said: "School is about offering young people challenges and it is very, very important to have the right environment in which to offer these challenges. I would just like to congratulate everybody on the huge amount of work and effort that has been put into building this environment in order to give you, the students, the opportunities and challenges that you should grasp with both hands and make the most of."

He then signed the visitors' book before heading to his next engagements at Crantock Bakery in Indian Queens and Brunel Business Part in St Austell - 30 minutes behind schedule, but leaving a lot of smiling faces.

For pictures of the Duke's visit to Truro click here