WORK is under way to build a pioneering £34.9m education village in the North-East.

The Darlington facility, on the site of Haughton Community School, will have 1,900 pupils. The project also includes the building of a new primary school.

The campus is the first in the country to be built under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), and will see three schools - Haughton Community School, Beaumont Hill Special School and Springfield Primary School - brought together on one site.

The village will also include a nursery for three and four-year-olds and an early years centre.

Each school within the scheme will retain its name, its identity and its own headteacher.

The village is being built on the playing fields of the community school. When it has been completed, pupils will be transferred and the existing building demolished, and redeveloped as playing fields.

The Kajima Corporation, an international property and construction company, is building the school. It will also run some of the services, such as cleaning, catering and maintenance, although overall control of education will remain with Darlington Borough Council.

Harrowgate Hill infant and junior schools will be brought together on one site in a primary school building with a futuristic design. It will also include the nursery.

Work has started on the Education Village. The construction of the new Harrowgate Hill School is scheduled to start in July. Both schools are due to open in September next year.