PUPILS helped start a £62m school building programme in the North-East.
Youngsters from Kingsmeadow Comprehensive School got work on their new school underway on Tuesday by making the first cuts in the ground where the foundations will be laid.
They swapped their desks for spades, and were joined by Councillor Catherine Donovan, cabinet member responsible for children and young people, who exchanged her office to tackle a JCB.
Two secondary schools and five primary schools will eventually be built under the programme, replacing school buildings which are either inadequate or no longer suitable.
The building programme includes secondary schools for Kingsmeadow and Lord Lawson of Beamish, a primary school for Harlow Green, amalgamating two separate school sites into one, a primary school to replace Rowlands Gill Infant and Junior schools and two primary schools in Highfield, to replace Highfield Primary and St Joseph's RC Primary schools.
Maggie Atkinson, group director of Learning and Children, said: "This is a major milestone for Gateshead Council and for our determination to provide schools that meet the needs of the 21st Century."
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