A plan put forward by Premiership rugby club Saracens to establish a new secondary school in its surrounding neighbourhood has been approved by the Department for Education (DfE).

The Saracens High School Free Trust School will be located in the Colindale area of Barnet, a stone’s throw away from the current Premiership champion’s Allianz Park.

According to the club, the school will be created “in response to the urgent need for more school places across the London Borough of Brent” and will be built on its “sporting beliefs to create a school environment where every individual student matters”.

Saracens is working in partnership with the Saracens Sport Foundation, Middlesex University, the Orion and Goldbeaters Primary School Gold Star Federation and Ashmole Academy.

Gordon Banks, Saracens community director, said the school was “an important part of the ongoing regeneration of this area, helping to raise aspirations and providing its young people with a great start in life”.