ONE of Britain’s smallest private schools is in a race against time to find land after its New Forest home was earmarked for demolition.

As previously reported in the Daily Echo, the Scout hut currently housing New Forest Small School is due to be redeveloped this Easter, leading to fears that the tiny facility could fold.

So far staff at the 35-pupil school in Lyndhurst have secured the use of mobile ‘modular’ classrooms – but as yet have nowhere to put them.

With time running out, they have renewed their plea for landowners to come to the rescue.

The school’s founder, Alison Alp, hopes to take advantage of National Park guidelines which suggest that learning facilities can be set up on suitable land within the boundaries of Lyndhurst, Ashurst, Sway and Brockenhurst.

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She said: “The modular classrooms are great for us, but we need a field or paddock or an agricultural area to put them on. We only need one or two acres.

“There is land out there, we just need someone to come forward.”

The £1,660-a-term school, based at the Scout hall and clubhouse in Wellands Road, Lyndhurst, specialises in teaching children in small classes and caters for pupils aged between two and 16.

With the hall – also home to the 1st New Forest North Scout group – due to be knocked down, staff have just months to find new premises.

Mrs Alp said: “We are halfway there.

“The new year is a time for getting creative and making things happen. We have got so many people depending on us being able to pull something together.

“We need to know what we are doing by the end of February at the very latest. It is a bit of a race against time.”