An inner-city Bradford primary school will not be beaten by the firestarters who sparked a blaze at the premises on Sunday, its head teacher has vowed.

Wahid Zaman, head of Atlas Primary School, in Lincoln Road, Manningham, believes the blaze, which took hold of a bin storage area at the back of the main building, was likely to have been started by youths who are known to hang around the area smoking.

The school was closed yesterday as staff and Bradford Council’s facilities management team worked on the clean-up operation. Classrooms, the reception and kitchen areas of the school were damaged by smoke.

Mr Zaman said he rushed to the school on hearing what had happened. “I got a call from one of our parents who lives close by. We have a fantastic community around us,” he said.

“Our value added score was in the top five per cent again and has taken a lot of hard work by staff, pupils and parents, and as I made my way to the fire I had visions of all that hard work going up in flames.

“It’s sad in the run-up to Christmas. A lot of activities are planned and a Santa suit was destroyed in the smoke.

“But fortunately it hasn’t been as devastating as it could have been. The fire brigade and police were fantastic last night.”

Firefighters were called to the school at 4pm and found four metal bins well ablaze next to a door. Crews dragged the containers away from the building, stopping flames from spreading.

Fire investigation officers at West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service are trying to establish the exact cause of the fire and have not ruled out arson.

Mr Zaman said: “It’s hard to tell. It’s unfortunate in that what we get quite often is youths hanging around smoking. So it is hard to find out if it was deliberate. Either way it’s careless. People should respect school sites.

“We do have CCTV and we’ll be looking at that today, and sharing it with the police and fire service.”

He said there were preventative measures the school could take to lessen the risks of a repeat.

“We are looking at re-siting the bin sites so it is further from the building.”

It is not the first time the school has suffered a fire.

Five small fires plagued the site in the space of a week in 2002.

Former teacher Amina Ditta admitted starting one of those fires in a temporary classroom, at Bradford Crown Court in 2003.

The incidents prompted education bosses to beef up security at the site by employing two security guards to provide it with around-the-clock protection.

e-mail: ben.barnett @telegraphandargus.co.uk