THE opening of a £35m North-East "super-school", the first of its kind in the country, has been delayed until April.

The Government has hailed the so-called education village, in Darlington, which will teach youngsters from the ages of three to 19, as a national blueprint for future developments.

It was due to have opened in the Haughton area of town this month, but the borough council said earlier this year that building delays due to bad weather over the winter had put the opening back to January.

Last month, town hall officials admitted the project may be set back further by damage caused by an arson attack over the summer holidays - the extent of which had not been realised until recently.

And the authority announced last night that, as a result of the incident, the 1,400-pupil school would now not open until April.

Children from Haughton Community School, Springfield Primary School and Beaumont Hill Special School - all of which are coming together on the one site - will remain where they are until then.

Vandals broke into the site over the summer and started a fire which caused severe damage to the roof of the swimming pool building.

Councillor Chris McEwan, cabinet member for children's services, said that construction firm Kajima was "working flat out to make sure the school is ready for Easter".

The repair work is expected to be completed in February, but the council said it did not want to move children during a school term.

Meanwhile, the authority remained tight-lipped about the outcome of a meeting to discuss a plea from Springfield parents for their school to be "de-federated" from the scheme.

The federated governing body met on Thursday to discuss the request.

Parents have expressed many concerns about the project and recently called on the Local Government Ombudsman to investigate the council's handling of the project.

Their petition called for Springfield to leave the federated governing body and regain its own body.

A council spokesman said the outcome of the meeting would be made public shortly, in letters to parents.

If the case is rejected, parents could take the matter to the Secretary of State.

One parent said last night: "We're virtually certain it is going to be thrown out."