Free school charity seeking parents to give new primary plan sporting chance

The One in a Million group, which already runs a small secondary school next to Bradford City’s Valley Parade ground, now wants to set up a primary school in the city.

It would be based in the new urban village development at Bolton Woods which is planned to eventually have more than 1,000 new houses.

The first 46 houses are currently being built and will be completed later this year, the charity said.

The proposed One in a Million free school would offer primary age pupils a “unique learning experience” focusing on “sports, arts and enterprise”.

In order to be able to open in 2015 the charity is looking for parents whose children are currently between one and threeyears old to sign up to its expression of interest website.

Free schools are a flagship policy of the coalition Government which is encouraging people to set up new state-funded schools if they can prove they have parental demand. Bradford is at the forefront of the policy with six already open across the city – half of all the free schools in Yorkshire.

The One in a Million secondary free school was originally planned to open in 2012 but the group discovered days before it was due to open that Ministers had not signed off on its funding. It was deferred for a year and opened last September.

Talking about the new primary school project, the charity’s founder and former Bradford City footballer Wayne Jacobs said: “Our charity values – compassion, honesty, integrity, excellence have been the driving force of the charity and its with great enthusiasm that we ask the people of Bradford to once again support us in this wonderful opportunity to create an outstanding primary school that serves to help raise the educational attainment in our great city”.