The borough’s first free school is full of “smiling” children after opening last week according to its principal, with no sign of the feared traffic chaos.

Gareth Jones, headteacher of Hindu faith school Avanti House, which opened its doors for the first time at Harrow Teachers Centre in Tudor Road last Wednesday, said things had been running smoothly.

The opening of the school, which is run by the Avanti Schools Trust which also started the Krishna Avanti Primary School in Camrose Avenue, prompted concerns from local residents that the extra traffic would be “disastrous”.

But the Harrow Times saw no evidence of this when it visited the site this morning, and Mr Jones said teachers had worked hard to try and prevent any burden to locals.

The 60-year-old said: “What we have done is to deploy a lot of senior staff on the road to get the children into school safely.

“Parents have been really helpful and a lot of them are car-pooling, which has definitely reduced the amount of traffic we’re getting.

“When we held consultations people were very clear that they had no opposition to us opening a school – they were just concerned about traffic which is fair enough.”

The school currently has 180 pupils in reception and Year 7, but wants to make its current temporary site at Harrow Teachers Centre permanent, with Harrow Council expected to decide in November whether the school’s application can go on to the next stage.

Mr Jones added: “We’re working with the Department for Education and there’s various steps we’ve got to get through.

“All of the children are still smiling so that’s a good sign – the parents have given us really good feedback and saying how positive the atmosphere and ethos of the school is.”

The site is earmarked for a secondary school in the council’s plan for the area, and the Avanti Schools Trust wants to school 1,680 pupils aged four to 18 in the building by September 2018.

It has a specialism in maths and performing arts, and lessons are based on the teachings of Hindu spiritualist Krishna Chaitanya, with yoga and meditation part of the curriculum.

Pupils have an exclusively vegetarian diet and learn Sanskrit, with a focus on Hindu ethics and philosophy.

Free schools are schools run by groups of parents, teachers, charities, trusts, religious and voluntary groups.

They are set up as academies and funded directly by the Government.

The idea was a key platform of the Conservative manifesto during the build-up to the 2010 General Election, but they have been criticised for being expensive and diverting funding from existing schools.