Staff and pupils have celebrated the official opening of a school's new buildings after delays caused by Brexit and the pandemic.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at Turner Free School in Tile Kiln Lane, Folkestone and students at the school - which replaced the former Pent Valley secondary - gave invited guests tours of the new facilities.

The school currently serves around 660 children across four age groups, but eventually it will have a roll of around 1,000 pupils.

Principal Kristina Yates, who joined the school in 2018 after a spell at the Folkestone School for Girls, could not hide her emotion when speaking to assembled guests about the journey from drawing board to official opening.

Speaking after the ceremony on Friday, she said: "Our pupils are incredible, they are polite, they are articulate, they are confident, they are really challenging the stereotypes of non-selective schools.

"Covid and Brexit extended the building project period, we had to deal with lots and lots of different changes as the project went through and that was really difficult for lots of our children.

"This building gives them the opportunity to have the school they deserve in terms of its facilities.

"But as I said in my speech, it's about people you can be in the best building in the world but what makes a school is the people in it."

The purpose-built new building sits on the former Pent Valley site and has been meticulously designed to ensure it meets the needs of a modern school.

A university-style lecture theatre and a large, airy 'heart' space for 'family dining' at lunchtime are among the highlights.

Even the toilets have been designed without external doors to prevent bullying or other antisocial behaviour which might traditionally happened away from the eyes of teachers.

"It's a key element of everything that we do here," Ms Yates said about the family dining concept.

"Our day is centred around that and whatever else is going on in the world we all stop to have lunch together.

"So it means that pupils from different year groups sit in their house groups. It's about that kind of cohesive nature of our school and it's about engaging pupils to be respectful of one another, to listen to each other's views.

"All the pupils and staff sit together. We all have different roles, one of us will go to collect the water, one of us hands out the cutlery, so that everyone has that kind of family feel. That's really important for our children."

The guest of honour at the opening ceremony was Dr Jo Saxton, the chief regulator of Ofqual, who was previously chief executive of the Turner Schools trust.