A GROUP of parents have outlined plans to open a revolutionary 800-pupil secondary school linked to hi-tech companies and offering a curriculum focused on engineering, science and business.

The New Oxford School Trust has put forward the most ambitious ‘free school’ proposal to date and is seeking backing from the Department for Education to open the school in Harwell or Milton Park in September 2012.

However, headteachers have attacked the plans, saying it is not needed and would undermine funding for existing secondary schools.

The trust wants to open the school in the Science Vale UK area, south of Oxford, taking pupils from across the county and working with cutting-edge companies to offer a practical education based around work experience, technology and business.

Project champion Joanna Birkett, from Kennington, said: “An original group of five parents thought there was a gap for this particular type of education and so have tried to put forward this idea for several years.

“The ‘free school’ policy has given us the opportunity. We really felt exposure to the working world in a much more varied way is a key factor in helping youngsters who do not achieve what they otherwise could.”

Possible sites have been discussed with Milton Park and Harwell business parks.

The plan is backed by Haberdashers’ Aske’s Federation, which runs three academies in London and Kent, while Abingdon and Witney College would offer sixth form qualifications, including vocational BTECs.

If Education Secretary Michael Gove backs the plans, which will be sent to ministers this month, the school would be run independently of Oxfordshire County Council, but funded by taxpayers.

Didcot Girls’ School head Rachael Warwick, speaking on behalf of all the secondary schools in Didcot, Abingdon and Wantage said the school was not needed.

She said: “As headteachers, we feel that young people within South Oxfordshire already have a wide choice of schools offering excellent educational opportunities and links with the science and business communities.”

Mrs Birkett said the school would have a longer working day, and scientists, engineers and businessmen would come into school regularly.

As pupils got older, they would spend half days and lessons at companies to develop workplace skills.

She said: “We have been talking to the county council about having a fairly big catchment area to give pupils across a wide area the opportunity to benefit from something different. That also means it will not impact very much on the existing secondary schools already there.”

Business leaders and Wantage MP Ed Vaizey have backed the plans, but headteachers and teaching unions have attacked them as “confused and contradictory”, saying they offer little different to what existing schools provide.

Oxfordshire County Council said while it has been approached by the trust, it would not give a formal view until the final proposal had been sent to the Government.

l The New Oxford School Trust will outline its plans in detail at a meeting at Chilton Village Hall tomorrow at 8pm.