POLITICIANS on a fact-finding mission dropped in on a North-East school yesterday.

The Education and Skills Select Committee spent four hours in Darlington looking at all aspects of the newly-opened Haughton Education Village.

The group is to write a report on how children with special educational needs (SEN) are educated in England and set out recommendations for the future.

Members visited the school because it is the first in the country to put the needs of children with special needs at its heart.

The £37.3m village open-ed its doors to 1,400 pupils, aged two to 19, last month.

It is the first school of its kind in the country, where three schools - Haughton Community School, Springfield Primary and Beaumont Hill Technology College, a special school - have come together as a federation under one roof.

It has been quite controversial and was originally supposed to open in November last year, but was delayed after a vandal attack.

Local authorities across the country have visited the site and the federation is seen as a blueprint for the inclusion of SEN children in the future.

The select committee interviewed staff, pupils and parents as part of its Special Educational Needs Inquiry, to be published at the end of next month.

One of the committee is Roberta Blackman-Woods, MP for Durham City. She said: "We wanted to see something different. Evidence suggests that for inclusion to work it needs to be in a school like this."

She said she was impressed by the building's "wow factor".

Darlington council chief executive Ada Burns said: "We are delighted to welcome the select committee and delighted they have found time to come and have a look."