Kent's newest secondary school has welcomed its first cohort of pupils this week.

Turner Free School, based at the former Pent Valley site in Folkestone, has inducted 120 brand new Year 7 pupils this week.

The facility is the first new secondary school in the town for a decade.

The main school building is based in the former Pent Valley Leisure Centre building on Tile Kiln Lane, which maintains its former sports hall but features brand new classrooms, including mobile rooms, and work spaces.

Jo Saxton, chief executive of Turner Schools, said the time it took to get the school up and running surpassed expections.

She said: "We got involved exactly two years ago this month when we submitted a bid to the Department for Education.

"It feels like a whirlwind really - two years from submission of papers through to 120 pupils actually arriving is amazing and I think most free schools take a full year longer than that.

"It's quite moving actually."

Although a non-selective school, the free school, run by the Turner Schools Academy Trust, is set to offer a 'grammar-style education' for 11 to 18-year-olds.

It will provide the EBACC qualification including maths, English, sciences, history, geography and a modern foreign language.

Pupils will learn French with four hours of lessons a week which the school hopes will give pupils an advantage when applying for jobs and further education.

Dr Saxton added that the school also has the go ahead for a new building for the school for September 2020.

She said: "We want to bring this site back to life and share this building again with the community.

"We're concious this is a little new school. Folkestone Academy is very much our flagship school.

"It has the potential there for dance, drama, performances and sporting facilities.

"There are lots of things that we quite literally do at Folkestone Academy that we can't do for our pupils here.

"So the curriculum offer reflect the very different premises and is very much thought through because we recognise parents and children want and need choice so the two schools are supporting each other but they're keeping a distinct character.

"Our overarching vision is that we want the young people of Folkestone to get a better education than they have.

"They don't do well enough compared to their peers nationally and we want to change that."

Speaking yesterday on her first day as principal, Kristina Yates said: "The first day has been absolutely wonderful. We've had family dining, so we've all sat down to share a meal together.

"The pupils have been an absolute delight.

"What we want to do at Turner Free School is offer success without selection.

"We want to make sure that all the children who come to us - regardless of their starting point - have a really successful future and achieve want they want to."

She noted that the parents of the pupils have taken a leap of faith in selecting the school.

She said: "I think our parents have been absolutely fantastic. they've supported us at every point and have been continuing to do so.

"We've got the most fantastic staff team here to welcome students and I'm incredibly proud of the team we've put together."

Ms Yates is an English specialist and started her career 12 years ago at the Marsh Academy where she later became assistant principal.

She then moved to Folkestone School for Girls (FSG) where she took on the role of assistant principal for behaviour and pastoral care before moving to become vice principal for teaching and learning.

FSG has become one of the top schools in the country for English GCSE. At the Marsh Academy, 36% more students achieved A*-C in GCSE English when she was there.

Ms Yates continued: "I've absolutely loved getting everything ready for this school because I really want our scholars to be proud of what they've got and for us to provide the very best education for the young people of Folkestone.

"I've absolutely loved getting everything ready for this school because I really want our scholars to be proud of what they've got...' - Kristina Yates, principal of the new Turner Free School

"This is the best opportunity of my whole career, and I hope it will be a fantastic opportunity for lots of children for many years to come.

"The biggest challenge will be making sure that our young people aspire to do brilliant things and I think we need to make the culture with them that actually, they can achieve anything they set their mind to."

Pupils are also provided with an element of choice over their school uniform, including tank tops and a blue or white shirt - something the school hopes will to give them 'autonomy'.

The overall capacity was originally due to be 720, but this has now increased to 1080 once full, including Sixth Formers. Around 260 applications were received for the 120 places on offer for this academic year, with 30 still currently on the waiting list. There will be an intake of 180 pupils per year as of next September.

Turner Schools already runs two primary schools in Folkestone – Martello Academy and Morehall Academy – which they say will act as 'feeders' for the new secondary.

Their bid was one of two submitted to the government to take over the site, the other from Swale Academies Trust, headed up by Kent 'superhead' Jon Whitcombe who was brought in to run Pent Valley after previous head Mario Citro was removed from his position in April 2015.

It followed a Kent County Council (KCC) inspection after poor exam results the previous summer.

The trust's bid focused on forging links with major employers in the town such as Holiday Extras, EDF Energy, Saga and Eurotunnel and specialise in modern foreign languages.

Kent County Council announced in December 2015 it was planning to close Pent Valley amid rising debts and falling pupil numbers.

Parents and pupils protested in Folkestone and outside County Hall in Maidstone against the announcement but its fate was sealed in March 2016 when KCC councillors voted to formally close the school in the summer of 2017 after Year 11 and 13 pupils complete their GCSEs and post-16 qualifications, respectively.

Legal action was launched to review KCC's process of announcing the closure but the judicial review failed to get to the steps of the High Court.

In April 2017, then education secretary Justine Greening announced 131 new schools across the country would create 69,000 places with 27 new schools in the south east with 15,000 places.

But in August 2017, the free school budget was slashed by £280 million in order to fund a £1.3bn investment in core schools funding and increasing money per pupil.

It meant that 30 of the 140 free schools awaiting approval, which the government aimed to introduce, would revert back to local authority control, but the Turner Academy project was not at risk.

Tracy Luke has now been appointed chair of governors at the new school aftering retiring from head teacher at Folkestone School for Girls in July after 14 years.