Bradford parents aim to run first "free school"

A group of parents at Birkenshaw in Bradford are aiming to run the first state financed "free school", the BBC has reported.

David Cameron and Michael Gove, the new Education Secretary, attended a march and rally organised by the parents 10 days before the election.

The parents were intending to travel to London yesterday to deliver their completed application forms in person, the BBC said.

The group has been campaigning for three years to get £30m in funding they believe is necessary to build and run the school. They argue that Kirklees Council will not provide an adequate secondary school for their children when it ends the middle school system in 2011.

The previous government turned their bid down after a report suggested a new school would damage the finances of other schools in the area.

Lesley Surman of the Birkenshaw, Birstal and Gomersal Parents’ Alliance said the group was confident it would get the go-ahead.

She also rejected union claims that they were setting up a “middle-class educational apartheid system”.

She told the BBC: “We are not social engineering. We were naïve in thinking that our campaign would just be about parents wanting a good school for their children and now we find ourselves in the middle of a political argument.”

In an email to civil servants on taking office this week, Gove said he wanted to “offer all schools the chance to enjoy academy-style freedoms so that heads and teachers across the country can be liberated”.