Coaching pledge at city’s free school

THE HEAD of a new school which is being launched at a football club has promised to provide intensive coaching for young people to allow them to reach their full potential.

Jez Stockill has been appointed as the principal designate of the One in a Million Free School which plans to open at the Bantams Business Centre next to Bradford City football club in September.

He told the Yorkshire Post the small school aimed to bring in a range of expert tutors and coaches as part of an education which would be tailored to each individual student.

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The school is being run by the One in a Million charity, which was launched at Bradford City seven years ago by former player Wayne Jacobs to use football as a way of helping to inspire young people from deprived backgrounds.

It now runs more than 20 education projects across the city and has been given the go-ahead to set up a state-funded secondary through the Government’s flagship free school programme.

The One in a Million School aims to recruit 50 11-year-olds from a three-mile radius of the Valley Parade football ground where it expects to be based.

Mr Stockill, who is born in Bradford and a lifelong fan of Bradford City, is leaving his role as the deputy head of the Hanson Academy in the city to lead the new school.

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“The most exciting thing for about this job was the opportunity to start a school from scratch,” he said. “It is an opportunity very few teachers ever get. The culture and ethos of the charity which has developed the free school will still run through it.

“It will be a small school. It will take 50 pupils this September with the numbers rising to 350 as we take on new year group every September

“I have worked for three very large secondary schools in West Yorkshire and I am very excited about working in such a small school. Because we are smaller young people will know their teachers and we will have a proper community in the school where every child will be known and treated as one in a million.

“Because we will know young people so well we can put together an education provision which is absolutely right for them. We will be a school which is very much focused on making sure pupils are both literate and numerate but there is also going to be a vocational element to it with excellent facilities to support children in sports, arts and enterprise.

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“The school will start with six or seven staff for 50 pupils rising to 30 or 40 once we become full but we will also look to coach pupils in sport, enterprise, drama or music production. As we know people in adult life need to have done at least 10,000 hours of practice to be a success, what we want to do it is bring in coaching excellence in whatever area a young person is interested in.”

The One in a Million School is holding a series of meet the principal events across the city throughout March for Bradford parents who are interested in sending their children there and is in talks with the Department for Education and Bradford City football club over a contract to allow a school to be opened at the Bantams Business Centre and sports facility.

Former Bradford City player and assistant manager Wayne Jacobs who co-founded the One in a Million charity with its chief executive Matthew Band said: “Every year hundreds of parents and children are disappointed not to be getting the place they’d hoped for at their chosen school – but this year there is another choice.

“Ten per cent of children from Bradford go out of the district for schooling – there’s 3,000 extra places needed this year and we feel incredibly privileged to offer an alternative – a free school with an exceptional environment for interactive learning that is designed for the children here who need it most.

“One in a Million has always been about making a tangible difference to Bradford’s children and working in partnership with parents is vital for the future success of our unique school.”

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