Salesian College, Farnborough, Hampshire is an independent Roman Catholic school. It admits boys from the age of 11 to 18, and girls in the Sixth Form. The College was founded in 1901 as a small preparatory school for boys, but soon expanded to provide boarding secondary education owing to its increasing popularity. For the 2007-2008 academic year, the College announced that it would admit girls into the Sixth Form for the first time. The college has a strong record of academic achievement, with a 100% pass rate at A Level and GCSE in 2010. In 1901, Bishop Cahill of the Diocese of Portsmouth invited the Salesians of Battersea to take over the orphanage, a former tin factory, in Queen's Road, Farnborough. This marked the beginning of the Salesians' work in education in the local area and as a parish. By 1902 a reporter in Sheldrakes Military Gazette noted that the thirty 'poor Catholic waifs and those sons of sore stricken Roman Catholic parents' had a home 'comfortable in every respect', and were learning trades to prepare them for life's struggles.