Organisers of the school say it will help to keep Sikh culture alive

The school, to be built in Slough, Berkshire, would be only the second Sikh primary in England - the other being in Hayes, west London.

Teachers on the local schools organisation committee had voted narrowly against the idea, feeling that the town has enough schools already.

The case was referred to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator, who has now ruled in Sikh parents' favour.

Delay

The adjudicator, Philip Hunter, approved the proposal with the modification that the school would open in September 2006 not 2005.

He said the required planning permission for the building of the new school, next to St Ethelbert's Catholic Primary School in Wellington Street, would need to be granted by April 2005.

Dr Hunter said the proposal "has the enthusiastic support of a large and committed community in the area. Representatives of the community have put together a sound and practicable proposal".

Slough has some 10,000 Sikhs - the highest concentration in the country, 9.1%, according to the last census.

The deputy leader of the borough council, George Davidson, said there had been some concern locally that - with falling numbers of primary age children - another school was unnecessary.

But he said there would be "general celebration" that the proposal had been approved.

Emotional

The proposed site is council land which has been earmarked for educational purposes but not used.

One of the parents pressing for the school, Nick Kandola, said planning permission was not a foregone conclusion, however, because it is a "green belt" area and because there is already traffic congestion.

But he is pleased about the adjudication.

"There's a lot of emotion wrapped up in this now, particularly for Slough parents - they say 'When are you going to open it, I have got kids I want to send there'," Mr Kandola said.

Funding has been promised by the Department for Education and Skills for the school, where a fifth of the 400 or so places will be reserved for non-Sikhs.

Although there will be a daily Sikh focus, the school will be multi-denominational in its teaching and staff.

"We take the same line of thought that a lot of Christian governors do," Mr Kandola said. "We feel there needs to be more emphasis on values in schools."

There were several references by objectors to the Guru Nanak Sikh primary School in Hayes where Ofsted has found serious weaknesses.