More than 40 children do not know where they will go to school in September after Romford’s first free school today postponed its opening.

The front page of today’s Recorder revealed that the Oasis Academy had been forced to find a temporary site for the start of term but its spokesman refused to say where it would be.

It was insisted that another building had been secured but a statement issued this morning announced that the failure to find an appropriate temporary site means that its opening will be postponed.

The owners of the site have “at the last minute” pulled out because the deal is not “commercially viable” for them, the statement read.

The primary school’s permanent site, the former Oldchurch Hospital, in Waterloo Road, will not be ready for up to two years.

And the school, owned by Oasis Community Learning, was due to open in the temporary site of the grounds of Romford YMCA, in Rush Green Road, but that also fell through.

The statement reads: “While we have been diligently searching for a new option, we believe that there are no other sites within an acceptable distance from the permanent site which are appropriate.

“Therefore we are only prepared to open a school on a site that will allow us to fulfil the high standards of education we set for ourselves and that our parents rightly expect from us.

“We therefore have no choice but to postpone the opening of the academy rather than to launch it in sub-standard conditions.”

The owners said that Havering’s schools admissions team will be working with parents to find alternative places for each child affected.

The school’s spokesman initially claimed that up to 130 children would attend the school but today a colleague adjusted the figure to 41.

Was your child meant to start at this school? Contact Sam on 0208 477 3892 or sam.blewett@archant.co.uk

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Uncertainty surrounds future of Romford’s first free school