The college’s senior sites leading teacher Brandi Galpin said there were many last-minute phone calls and messages.

“Everyone jumped in to help,” she said. 

“We put the word out on Facebook and through text messages that we were going ahead.

“One student who is an expert in sound and lighting got a generator from somewhere and had those things going first.

“Kirsty's Cakes and Catering did a great job managing to serve a three-course meal to 275 guests.

“We had Stuart Hobbs from Breuers and Matt Coutts from Laser Electrical Horsham who just happened to be guests.

“They organised generators for us and that got us through until the power came back on.

“We had a bit of time trying to switch back to normal power, but everything went well.

“Everybody was happy.”

Miss Galpin said the only problem was the air-conditioner refused to work.

“The fuse had blown,” she said.

“The good news is we had 140 students sitting an English exam in the hall on Thursday morning and the cooler was working.”