STAFF and children at a Darlington school hosted a senior minister to help him learn more about education for youngsters with special needs.

Jonathan Slater was just a few days into his job as Permanent Secretary for the Department for Education when he visited Marchbank Free School on a fact-finding mission.

The school, which is part of the Darlington-based Education Village Academy Trust, opened in 2013 with 16 primary age children, many of whom were excluded from mainstream schools and have social, emotional or mental health difficulties.

The school now takes 43 children.

Members of the school council spoke to Mr Slater about life at Marchbank before he and Andrew McCully, a director general at the DfE, and Trust chair of the board Jim O’Neill, visited each of the classes to see children in their lessons.