Parents in tears as plug pulled days before Bradford free school opened

The One in a Million Free School was set to open next week offering a mix of vocational and academic education on a site next to Bradford City Football Club. Building work has taken place, 30 pupils had signed up and six staff had been appointed to work at the school being run by the One in a Million charity.

It was informed by the Department for Education (DfE) on Friday, however, that the funding agreement would not be signed meaning it could not open.

The school was told it was not getting funding because it had recruited just 30 year seven pupils when its planned capacity was 50.

The charity’s chief executive Matthew Band added: “The first indication we had that numbers would be a problem was last Friday.

“We emailed parents and have been ringing them to tell them the news. They have been devastated and we are devastated for them. Some have been in tears and others asking ‘What can we do to make this happen?’”

The One in a Million charity said it had passed its “Readiness for Opening Meeting” with DfE officials and achieved a good Ofsted pre-inspection.

It also said the DfE had approved financial plans based on pupil projections varying from being 100 per cent full with 50 pupils to being half full with 25.

The free school planned to open with 50 places this year in 
year seven rising to 350 over time as it took on a new cohort each year.

Mr Band added: “Obviously 
we are amazed at this decision particularly at such a late stage and, although low student 
numbers have been cited and 
we have had to watch some parents walk away due to the insecurity surrounding the funding agreement, as a small school we still have nearly two thirds of our places filled with 30 students committed to start on September 3.”

The DfE has offered the One in a Million School group the chance to defer its opening until 2013.

Mr Band said it was considering this but would want “concrete” guarantees the funding agreement would be signed off in advance.

He added: “Although we do not agree with the decision made by the DfE, and no matter how disappointing it is, we will now work closely this week with the local authority admissions team in Bradford to ensure that all our children are placed in an appropriate local authority school and we will feed
back all our parents’ views and comments alongside our own to the DfE free schools group and senior Ministers.

“No doubt in the fullness of time we will find out the real reason for what has just happened and will consider our position but we are determined to take this forward, if at all possible, and will pursue whatever avenues are open to us to make the One in a Million Free School a successful reality.”

The planned free school was to offer of a curriculum “themed across sports, the arts and enterprise.” It also planned to offer an iPad to every pupil. The charity had secured a series of high profile One in a Million ambassadors with links to the city to support the initiative, including singer Gareth Gates and Bradford City football legend Stuart McCall.

The free school was given initial approval to open in 2012 by the DfE last year along with two others in Bradford which will be run by the existing Dixons Academy – one of the city’s top performing state schools.

Now the charity and Bradford Council are working to ensure pupils who were set to attend the One in a Million School are found places for the start of the new term.

Coun Ralph Berry, the council’s executive member for children and young people’s services, 
said: “We have a range of upset and confused parents, and we have seen a huge amount of time effort and public money spent on a small scheme, with some ideas and passion, that in no way tackles the scale of the challenges facing urban and other authorities.

“But this debacle has a human face too, its about parents who took the idea up, whose children have uniform that is now wasted cash in a deep recession, and who now have to look to the very people Education Secretary Michael Gove demonises to help and support them; the local authority. The parents and children have been given eight days before school starts to find places in a pressured system.”