THE opening of a new free school in the region on Monday (September 15) was "an incredibly proud moment", a long time campaigner said.

Frances Lynch, a director of the Ingleby Manor Foundation Trust, which is behind the new free school in Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton, said it had not been easy but the end result was worth it.

Ingleby Manor opened its doors to its first year 7s – 80 pupils in total – in a converted unit at Teesside Industrial Park.

The temporary base is offering all the facilities offered by a normal school, including a school field.

Work on the school building itself is still due to start on land just off Low Lane, Ingleby Barwick, with completion expected by Christmas 2015.

Ms Lynch said: "We are incredibly proud of what we have been able to achieve for the community. It has not been an easy journey at all. A lot of people say they didn't like the idea of a free school and that they didn't want it to go ahead.

"But every time we heard "no", it just made us more determined than ever.

"It is great for the young people of our community."

The new school incorporates a longer school day – from 8.30am to 4.30pm – and no homework. Pupils finish at 2.30pm on a Friday and there are also plans to offer more evenly spaced holidays.

Campaigning for another secondary school in Ingleby Barwick has been going on for over ten years, and plans for the free school were approved by Local Government secretary Eric Pickles last September following a planning inquiry.

Planning permission had been rejected by the Labour-run Stockton Council, whose planning committee objected to the 350 associated homes on the application.

But campaigners said the 20,000 people who lived in Ingleby Barwick required more than just one small secondary school. Hundreds of secondary-age pupils are currently bussed to school in Yarm and Eaglescliffe each day.

When the private housing estate was first planned in the 1970s it was expected to have two secondary schools and a sixth form, but Ingleby did not have its first secondary school until 2002.

Free schools are a concept launched by the Coalition government, publicly funded and free from council control. Ingleby Manor is Teesside's first free school.