SCHOOLS minister Lord Nash has hailed the opening of the first special free school in the region as an example of the kind of "innovative thinking" needed to push the UK up the international school league tables.

Lord Nash made his comments after he officially declared Marchbank Free School open during a visit to Darlington.

Speaking to a packed audience in the former Victorian mansion turned school the Government minister said: “All over the country schools like this are springing up.”

He said 300 free schools were planned and 174 had already opened while another 16 special free schools had been approved and eight had opened.

The schools minister added: “There are very few countries in the world where a group of people can come together and apply to open a school like this.”

He said it was “unique” in being the only free school to open on a surplus Department of Education site.

Lord Nash told The Northern Echo that it was vital to pursue “innovative thinking” in education to try to catch up with our international competitors.

Free schools were just one strand of Government policy designed to close the gap, he added.

“We have to raise our game and there is real urgency to turn the situation around,” he said.

The former Teachers’ Pension Agency in Mowden Hall was declared surplus by Education Secretary Michael Gove three years ago.

It led to an application on behalf of the Education Village group of schools in Darlington to open a spacious new school with access to wooded grounds.

So far the new school has 18 pupils classified as having behavioural, emotional or social difficulties and there is a plan to expand to at least 30 in a year or two.

Principal Mandy Southwick said: “Parents, staff and governors are very enthusiastic about this great opportunity we have been given.

“We aim to obtain exceptional outcomes so that these children ultimately leave school as productive, fulfilled and happy young people.”

Councillor Bill Dixon, leader of the Labour-controlled Darlington Borough Council, told the Echo that the authority had supported the application for pragmatic reasons to improve educational facilities in the town.