Boxer Bobby Vanzie was treated to a trip down memory lane when he visited an inner city school to celebrate the start of new building work.

At Byron Primary School, in Barkerend Road, Bobby, pictured taking one on the chin from pupil Shatiq Kassam, met his old design and technology teacher Geoff Green, who is chairman of governors.

As he planted a tree to mark the start of work on £3 million worth of brand new buildings, Councillor Green told pupils they should regard the boxer as a role model.

"He was a dream to teach," said Coun Green, recalling their time together at the former Pollard Park Middle School, which was next to Byron Primary.

"Anything the school did, he got involved with."

The sports star led pupils on a training run around the playing field. Afterwards, he said: "I remember being taught by Mr Green. He wasn't a teacher to be messed with - which I respected. He was a stern disciplinarian.

"He wasn't particularly happy when I started boxing at the Karmand Centre across the road - I was ten at the time. Like my mother, he didn't want me to go down that road. He thought I should be on the stage."

Coun Green lined up the VIP visitor after bumping into him in his home village of Queens-bury. Vanzie runs around the moortop village as part of his training regime. "He was a credit to us, taking a full part in the life of the school, and is a tremendous role model for youngsters in the area, having made full use of his talents," said Coun Green.

In total 150 schools are being rebuilt or extended as part of the Bradford schools reorganisation, and Byron is one of a handful of 'new build' projects.

The new £3 million school, which will take shape on playing fields next to the current buildings, will have 21 classrooms in two storeys, a 30-place nursery, a double school hall with a specially designed sliding wall and outdoor playing areas with both hard and soft surfaces.

The grounds will be landscaped and a new pedestrian crossing put in.

It will enable the school to grow from 420 to 630 places. It serves the deprived area of Barkerend, and 96 per cent of pupils are Asian, mostly Pakistani, but with a growing number of Bengali speakers.

School leaders have admitted to being "disheartened" and even "violently angry" at times during negotiations over the building programme, but are delighted work is now starting.

Headteacher Ian Hodgson said: "The best thing will be having new facilities and a better quality learning environment, instead of a leaking building with water literally coming through the windows."

Work is expected to take a year and will be completed by September 2002.