CWMCARN High School’s 937 pupils today make the 15-mile trip to their temporary home in Blaenau Gwent for the first time.

Following the discovery of asbestos at the school, Caerphilly council is paying the £1.4 million cost of sending the youngsters to the former Coleg Gwent campus in Ebbw Vale for the rest of this academic year.

The long-term future of the school is still unclear, but to allow more detailed assessments of the asbestos to be carried out, the local authority agreed to the temporary move at an emergency meeting last month.

In a statement, the council said preparations continued over last week’s half term period, with work taking place to transfer teaching and learning resources.

Information from the school’s IT server was also transferred to Ebbw Vale, meaning pupils will be able to retrieve work which has been stored electronically.

Letters were posted to parents and guardians at the end of last week, outlining travel arrangements, with the journey one-way expected to take around one hour.

Coaches will take pupils to Ebbw Vale from the Cwmcarn High School site as well as from a number of locations around the area.

Despite the huge cost and travel time, keeping the pupils together was the preferred option of teachers, parents and pupils after Cwmcarn High was forced to close last month.

Four options were considered.

Three would have seen pupils either transferred to other schools or taught in temporary units at Cwmcarn, which would have led to redundancies, new teachers for youngsters and classrooms split.

At an emergency meeting, the council’s corporate director Sandra Aspinall recommended the move to Ebbw Vale, saying it was the preferred option to “keep the school community together”.

Members from all political parties agreed, with parents delighted. Ann-Marie Croker has two children at Cwmcarn, which she called “an amazing school”, adding: “we want to keep the school community together”.

Emma Verrier agreed, adding: “It’s all about getting them back on the Cwmcarn site long-term.”

Ms Aspinall said it will become clearer in the next few months, as work takes place, whether pupils can return to Cwmcarn High for the 2013/14 academic year.