CHILDREN at Newport's new secondary school are having their first lessons this week.

They are spending their first week in the £10 million replacement for St Joseph's Roman Catholic High School in Pencarn Way, Duffryn.

It is is the first school to be built in Newport for 32 years, with state-of-the-art facilities for both teachers and pupils.

All this week, pupils have returned from a staggered half- term holiday for their first lessons.

Building work on the new school started in May, 2003. The decision to build a replacement school was made after water was found to have penetrated the exisiting building.

A study recommended that building new premises rather than repairing the old building was the best way forward.

Head teacher Susan Jenkins said: "The school is made up of people and we are taking the people with us, that's the very heart of the school."