A PRIMARY school which is relocating this September will have its old site taken over by a Christian group which wants to run a free school, it has been revealed.

St Mary's Church of England School in The Drive, Walthamstow, is moving to the former Warwick Boys School in Brooke Road as part of a £3 million scheme to treble its intake to help ease the borough's pupil places shortage.

Mystery had surrounded what would happen to the site in The Drive but the evangelical Emmanuel Christian centre group, based in Erskine Road, has now announced it intends to move in.

Its Emmanuel School Trust revealed in March that it had secured initial approval from the government to establish the 'Emmanuel Community School', but said at the time that negotiations over its location were still on-going.

The project is being founded under the government's 'free school' scheme, which will mean it is independent of council control and will receive its funding direct from the Department of Education (DoE).

The trust says the Diocese of Chelmsford and the DoE have agreed to the plan.

However it says the building is unlikely to be ready in time for the school's planned opening in September.

In the meantime, the free school will temporarily be based at the Emmanuel Christian Centre in Erskine Road for up to one year.

Titilayo Oluwatudimu, lead proposer, said: “Our school will provide an outstanding, Christian-based education for primary-age children of all faiths and none in Walthamstow.

"Our approach will be to prioritise literacy and numeracy so that we are sure our children have the basics that they need to learn more broadly.

"We will foster the value and worth of every child, developing in them a positive and ‘can-do’ attitude."

The trust plans to accept up to 30 pupils for both reception and year one classes in its first year, but hopes to expand by the same number each year, eventually bringing the total to more than 200.

It is proposed that the school day will run from 8am until 6pm Monday to Friday, with the academic year including six half terms and totalling 39 weeks.

Peter Lewis, Principal Designate, added: “It’s great news that we’ve secured the site. I am very excited about opening”.

A public consultation on the plans runs until Friday June 22.

Visit www.proposedemmanuelcommunityschool.co.uk or call 020 7924 5109 for more information.

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