A teacher who is planning to open a free school in Tooting has said it is the perfect site for attracting youngsters from a wide variety of cultures.

Katharine Birbalsingh, 38, will be the headteacher of the Michaela Community School, to its 120 pupils when it opens next September.

She said that students will learn Mandarin and Latin during an extended working day, and will be expected to take part in compulsory extra-curricular activities afterwards. The controversial teacher, who has been teaching in London state schools for over a decade, shot to fame when she slammed the education system at the Conservative Party conference last year.

She was suspended from her post as a deputy head teacher after speaking on how the education system fails black children.

Ms Birbalsingh aims to provide an "old-style, public school style education" and wants to have pupils from a variety of backgrounds.

She said: "Anybody can come to our school - we will have different children from different races and religions. I do hope there will be that here and Tooting is perfect.

"We live in a multicultural, multi-class community and we should look around at all the different communities we have."

The school will be open from 8.30am to 5pm and pupils will study a wide variety of subjects including financial literacy and media values.

There will also be a strong emphasis on discipline.

Ms Birbalsingh, who has also published a book and blogs for The Telegraph said: "There will be different activities throughout the extended day, I think children watch too much MTV these days.

"We do believe in discipline, we don't have a liberal laissez faire attitude. Children will have the privilege of being children - they don't have that privilege anymore, they grow up too quickly."

Local teachers will be involved in setting the school up, but Ms Birbalsingh said she plans to hire from all areas.

She said Tooting will benefit by having more choice for parents and it will mean children in the borough can walk to school.

A consultation is being drawn up and will run until February before a site for the school is decided.

For more information visit michaelacommunityschool.co.uk