Doors to a new campus opened for the first time yesterday as pupils returned from holidays.

Ysgol Pen Barras and Rhos Street School are both located on site, however still remaining as separate entities.

The £11.2 million school building at Glasdir, funded by the Denbighshire County Council and Welsh Government as part of the 21st Century Schools Programme, will accommodate for 315 pupils from Pen Barras and 210 from Rhos Street School.

Ysgol Pen Barras headteacher, Marc Jones, said: “We are extremely pleased to be welcoming children here for their very first day. We have waited a long time for this day, but it’s a great day.

“We needed to share facilities at the old site, making sure that sessions didn’t clash. We’ve also had to share the school hall, meeting rooms, instrumental lessons were being held in the staff room.

"Both schools have worked very closely over the years to facilitate all of this and and that close co-operation will continue.

“Now we won’t need to share facilities as both schools will have their own. It will be a lot more practical and the brand new facilities will mean the world to all the children."

The two schools will move into state of the art facilities which which is set to transform their learning environment.

Rhos Street School headteacher, Bryn Jones, shared Mr Jones' enthusiasm for the new facilities and said it was an absolute delight to be opening the site up to the pupils and parents for the first time.

Mr Jones said: "When we think about out old school, we loved the place, but we were split in two ways - we had an upstairs and a downstairs, with pupils working upstairs.

"We also had our year five and six's working in another building on the other side of the school field. Now we're all on one level, all the classes are together, so there is much more of a collective feeling in this new building.

"That hand in hand with all the resources that we're having - the external areas, the ICT opportunities from our suit and having those areas developed as well as not having to share facilities between ourselves and Pen Barras is a real positive thing as well."

Already Mr Jones said he had been receiving positive feedback from both pupils and parents and was looking forward to settling into the new facilities now they were complete.

He said: "I have heard a lot of them saying 'wow' - they're really impressed and they're really excited. They were excited before the holidays and I'm sure the feedback we'll receive from here will be all positive."

Councillor Huw Hilditch-Roberts, Denbighshire County Council’s lead member for Education, Children and Young People, said this positive feedback just showed how much the new facilities meant to both schools.

Cllr Hilditch-Roberts said: “This is a great day for Ruthin and the surrounding area and we wish all pupils the best start in their new school.

“Through the commitments in our corporate plan we want Denbighshire to be a place where young people can, and want to, flourish.

"We are helping to achieve this through the 21st Century Schools programme which has seen more than £56 million of investment in the county’s schools with more projects in the pipeline.

“We want young people to be resilient and have the right skills to thrive and we are doing this by helping parents give their children the best start in life, so they grow into independent and fulfilled adults.”