PARENTS and friends of Old Cleeve Church of England School, Washford, are trying to raise £20,000 for a minibus.

The school’s vision is for its 116 pupils aged three to nine years to ‘see remarkable things every day’.

School administrator Kirsty Cridland said a minibus would help the youngsters to be more involved in everything the community had to offer.

Mrs Cridland said: “For our children to be able to achieve and thrive and have a sense of belonging in our community, we would like to buy our own minibus.

“Having our own transport would enable our children to have so many more opportunities and get involved in activities within the community that we currently cannot do due to our rural location.

“With the current cost of living crisis, having our own bus would cut costs for parents as we have to outsource to transport companies, which incurs extra costs.

“We have staff who can drive it, and lots of activities and trips to involve the children in, we just need some help with funding it.”

A GoFundMe appeal here brought in just over £1,000 while a minibus committee was formed to start fund-raising and since then the total has been taken to more than £4,000 with parish council and church grants, and through donations and events, the most recent of which was a ‘big breakfast’ which raised £1,116.91.

The team is now organising a paint and Prosecco evening, a community dog show, and another big breakfast event.