Colston School to be renamed Collegiate School, Bristol

In December the fee-paying school began a public consultation about whether it should be renamed

A public school set up 312 years ago by the slave trader Edward Colston will be renamed in September, it has announced.

From the start of the new academic year Colston School will be known as Collegiate School, Bristol.

A consultation on the future of its name began in July in response to the toppling of the Edward Colston statue.

The school joins a number of Bristol institutions that have sought to distance themselves from the controversial figure.

• Colston's Girls' School chooses new name

• New bid to drop venue 'slave trader' link

• Does Colston's School need renaming, survey asks

Colston School governors emphasised the change of name was not an attempt to change or deny the school's history and its links to the slave trade.

Colston School chair of the board Nick Baker said it was important its students continued to be taught about the school's history.

"In order to assist with this, some historical aspects of the school, for example the crest and motto, will be retained and explained, rather than removed," he said.

Black Lives Matter protesters knelt on the neck of the bronze statue of Colston before it was pushed into Bristol Harbour

The survey on whether the school's name should be changed received more than 2,500 responses - including 1,096 from the general public.

Four out of five members of the public who took part in the survey said the school should retain the name of Colston's.

But pupils, alumni and staff, said changing the name of the school was a positive step.

Edward Colston was also a philanthropist who is associated with many buildings in Bristol

The school said it chose the name Collegiate School, Bristol, out of hundreds of suggestions by students, parents, staff and alumni.

The schools governors said collegiate, which means a collection of colleges or campuses, was a "strong contender" because of the school's history.

In 1991, the school merged with the Collegiate School in Winterbourne, becoming co-educational after nearly three centuries as a boys' school.

For a time it was known as "Colston's Collegiate".

Head teacher Jeremy McCullough said the new title would help it to become "an ever more inclusive and welcoming community".

"Increasingly our student and parental body reflect the diverse nature of Bristol and we want to continue to work with our local communities in order to widen access to our school as much as possible," he said.

The school's name will officially change from September.