A ROMSEY school has to raise tens of thousands of pounds in order to be fully accessible to every child studying there.

Education bosses have now secured the majority of the £690,000 needed to build two new classrooms at Romsey Abbey Primary School - but they still need to raise ten percent of the costs.

Currently the old part of the Church Lane school, which dates back to 1851, is unable to accommodate wheelchairs but there's a chance that one of it's pupils won't be able to use it soon.

Jagger Curtis, who suffers from a rare form of muscular dystrophy, will need a wheelchair as his life-limiting condition progresses.

Head teacher Julie-Anne Palfrey said she hoped he won't need it while he's at the school but hoped that the work would start in August.

Mrs Palfrey said: "We felt that we needed to help him and that it would be so unfair for him to have to change school simply because we can't accommodate a wheelchair."

They have three years to raise the £69,000 , with more than £14,000 raised already through the school's fete and the PTA.

“It sounds a lot but if we keep chunking off portions of it we'll soon get there,” she said,

It will allow the community room, which is currently the Year R classroom to return to being a community room, while the Year 6 children can move downstairs and be close to the rest of the school.

“Our budget does not include money for this therefore we will be looking to fund this in various ways, including fundraising through the PTA. I know you will be supportive of this, in making sure our school is fully accessible to all children.”

She added that from September until the end of the build all children, except those in Year R and those who need help getting to the grounds, will need to come through the gate on their own.

They can be collected from the top playground by the school library.

“If you need to communicate with your child’s teacher, please do so by a note in the morning or by catching them in the afternoon.

“The contractors will be working within a fenced off area to ensure full safety for all. If during this time you have any comments or concerns, please raise them with myself personally or via adminoffice@romseyabbey.hants.sch.uk as we will always be looking to improve.”