St Peter’s Primary School in Cassington has been granted planning permission to build a new classroom and improve other facilities.

The school also plans to build a walkway from the new building to the main school, a new entrance and improve staff facilities.

The school, in The Green, hopes the project will allow it to take children of pre-school age, as young as two, in addition to the existing intake of four to 11-year-olds.

The Church of England primary school has applied to the Anglican Diocese of Oxford’s board of education for funding for the £250,000 project.

It is hoped the work can begin during the summer holidays next year with all the new facilities completed by April 2014.

The members of West Oxfordshire District Council’s lowlands area planning sub-committee granted planning permission for the project last month.

Headteacher Jeanette Millward said: “It’s such an opportunity for us as a small village school to expand a little bit more.

“What we do not want to do is lose our small village community focus, but it will make things a lot easier for us.

“We have 84 children on the roll at the moment but we’re having more children and families wanting to join our school and we’re thinking of the future and trying to make ourselves more sustainable.”

The project will be completed in three phases, beginning with the classroom, then the new entrance and ending by improving the car park.