Children living in Blunsdon St Andrew will be offered a radical curriculum at a new primary school.

The Department for Education has been granted planning permission by Swindon Borough Council to build Abbey Farm Primary School on land in Diamond Crescent, near the new houses that surround Swindon's speedway stadium.

The school will have two classes per year and room for 460 pupils and 40 places in its nursery school. It will be run by Educate Together, an Irish company which already runs schools in Bristol, Keynsham, Bath and Weston-super-Mare.

The company says all children will have equal rights of access to the school – and children of all social, cultural and religious backgrounds will be equally respected.

It says the school will be co-educational and committed to encouraging all children to explore their full range of abilities and opportunities. The educational approach is child-centred and the school will be “democratically run with active participation by parents in the daily life of the school, whilst positively affirming the professional role of the teachers.”

Interim chief executive of Educate Together Jo Bradshaw said: “We work hard to create a positive, comfortable atmosphere in all our schools, nurturing each child as an individual.

“The underlying concept is that human diversity enhances life, enriches culture and provides huge educational resources for current society and its future social, cultural and economic prosperity.

“Each school is different and meets the needs and aspirations of their local community and parents however each school adheres to the four core principles.”

She added: “We actively encourage and teach children to be proactive participants in our world, questioning and reflecting on all that life brings them.

“Our ethical curriculum Learn Together is taught every day with the national curriculum integrated into it. This means that the children will be ‘secondary ready’ with their core skills of maths, English, science and all the usual subjects and will also have a range of other skills to enable them to be proactive citizens.

“High standards in a rich knowledge and skills based academic and non-academic curriculum are the expectation.”

Although Abbey Farm will be run as a free school – which means it is funded by Whitehall and not by Swindon Borough Councill – the local authority's cabinet member for education Russell Holland welcomed the decision.

He said: “It’s great news for parents and children that the new school at Abbey Farm has been given the go ahead. As a council we have a strong track record of providing new schools and I would like to thank everyone for all of the hard work involved which has made this happen.

“This new primary school will provide top-class facilities and a quality learning environment for up to 460 pupils in North Swindon, giving them the perfect platform to flourish as they begin their school journey.”