HOPES have been raised for a village primary school which faces an uncertain future after it received an 'Outstanding' Ofsted report.

St Weonards Primary School in the south of the county has just 20 pupils on its roll and is threatened with closure due to funding.

But following the recent Ofsted inspection which resulted in the top grading for the school, plans have been made to try and keep it open for the future.

It is hoped that working alongside home-schooled children through a flexi-schooling approach, the school should be able to remain open.

Flexi-schooling means that children are registered at the school in the usual way but attend school only part time. The rest of the time the child is home educated. But the school will receive full funding for each pupil from the government.

The joint chief executive of Herefordshire Marches Federation of Academies (HMFA) Peter Box said: "I found out there are 165 home-schooled pupils in Herefordshire alone. Obviously some of them are high school age children but a large amount of them will be primary school age.

"The school would get funding for these pupils - it wouldn't matter if they were there two days or five days."

On November 28 the school called a meeting with parents to inform them that they could not meet the Local Authority demand to set a three-year budget so therefore would have to shut by 2019.

But if St Weonards can move forward with flexi-schooling, alongside offering full time places, they can then produce a three-year budget plan and keep the school open.

St Weonards will also apply to become an academy. The school is already part of HMFA but within that federation is a multi-academy trust which includes the primary schools in Scudamore, Sutton and King's Caple. St Weonards would become part of this and would have greater protection against closure.

With regards to funding, Mr Box said: "If it is an academy it still gets treated the same. The money would come from a funding agency rather than the local authority but it is the same amount as everyone else."

Mr Box said the 'Outstanding' report gave the school a boost.

The Ofsted inspection noted that ‘the school’s leaders, with strong support from the federation, have worked tirelessly, purposefully and successfully to promote excellence in teaching, learning and outcomes for pupils.’ Mr Box hopes the school will stay open and said: “We believe that by offering flexible schooling at St Weonards, we can serve the wider community and ensure the future viability of this excellent school."

He said it is a case of waiting to see what interest they get. Parents who are interested in finding out more about flexible schooling should contact peterboxflexischooling@gmail.com