As strong supporters of the proposals for a Free School at Heyford Park we wanted to respond to the letter from Chris Blakey of the NUT (Oxford Mail ViewPoints, January 11).

We are local residents, parents and members of the Heyford Trust steering committee. We think it’s important to explain exactly how the Free School will be run and why it’s important we offer our support.

We want to highlight this project’s exciting potential to make a real difference to the educational needs of our community and the futures of our children.

Having spent the past three years pooling the aims and objectives of local people, the residents and parents’ steering group is totally behind the idea of a Free School at Heyford Park.

We recognise that not only do we need a new all-through school in the area but we want that school to closely reflect the community’s needs – our needs.

Once operational, the not-for-profit Free School will do just this. It will be governed by a partnership between the school’s charitable trust and local parents, supported by local authority funding.

This will allow for more autonomy and flexibility to meet the specific needs of our children, while ensuring that there are the resources to support it.

Our charitable trust will be run in the same way as a state-financed school, with funding per head matching that of any regular state school. There is no potential for profit to be made and no underlying commercial agenda.

By promising to commit about £12m to renovate the proposed school building in the heart of Heyford Park, the Dorchester Group, which owns Heyford Park, has provided an important vehicle to kick-start our vision and has committed a significant investment in local education.

To this end, they also enlisted Wey Education to advise us, to provide credibility to our proposals and ensure we had an expert eye on our plans. This has not compromised the quality or accountability of our proposal – rather it has improved it.

We are now confident that the school’s charitable trust has the right capacity and skills to independently build a successful Free School and want to encourage as many parents as possible to give us their support.

NATASHA SMITH RICHARD HENDERSON KATE HENDERSON MICHAEL ZEYFERT JENNY LUFF The Heyford Trust Heyford Park