The long awaited new Peacehaven Secondary School is taking shape and will eventually be one of the most up to date in the country.

It has taken more than 20 years of campaigning to get a new secondary school for the town.

The school will ease pressure on Newhaven's Tideway School and save the pupils bus rides into Newhaven.

The first head teacher of the school, Fiona Wright, will take up her post full-time in January, ready for the first intake of pupils in September 2001.

The structure of the main hall is beginning to take shape and work is starting on adjoining classrooms and facilities.

Recruitment of staff will start later this year. When the school is fully operational in five years' time, it will have 750 pupils and 80 staff.

Fiona Wright is currently head of Hampden Park School in Eastbourne and has already made several trips to Peacehaven to see how work on the new school is progressing.

This week she was in Peacehaven with the chairman of the governors, Baldev Soni, walking the nearby roads to mark out which will be used as part of the Safe Routes to Schools.

A 20mph speed limit will be imposed on main routes to the school. Peacehaven Town Council is calling for the limit throughout the town.

When the school opens in September it will have 150 Year Seven pupils. Gradually each year another 150 will join, leading to a 750-pupil school.

There is a possibility the school could be expanded to take 900 once the first Year 11 pupils have gone through the school.

Money for the school has come from the Private Finance Initiative, a mixture of public and private sector funding.

A £30 million deal was delivered in April to create the new school and make improvements to four neighbouring primary schools.

Mr Soni said: "There has been a lot campaigning to get this school. At last things are beginning to take shape."