A NEW Tyldesley school is gearing up for a grand opening ceremony.

Tyldesley Primary in Ennerdale Road, Astley, will throw its doors open for the first time this Thursday (April 5).

The new school has been built in under eight months and cost just over £1m.

The school is the first to be designed for Wigan Local Education Authority for many years and staff were given the chance to have their say on how the new building looked.

Head-teacher Viv Burrow said: "We were invited to ask for what we wanted and that is what we have been given, a bright, airy, daylight-filled school which will be much easier and cheaper to maintain than older schools.

"It has also been carefully designed outside to deter that scourge of modern education - the school vandal - whilst at the same time having a warm and friendly child-centred atmosphere inside."