Village that lost its school replaces it with a classroom in a farmer's cowshed

Welcome to Hollyfields, the school in the middle of a working dairy farm.

And, with sheep and chickens roaming around at playtime, it's safe to say the 23 pupils are enjoying a broader curriculum than usual.

Geoffrey Miller and his wife Anne, a teacher, set up the private school after their village's state-run primary closed in July and Mrs Miller lost her job.

The Millers spent £250,000 converting the derelict shed into two classrooms, toilets, office and staff room in time for the start of term.

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Now Mrs Miller employs four staff - all former colleagues from the old school - to help look after the four to nine-year-olds at West Bourton, near Gillingham, Dorset.

She is also helped by her mother who comes in to read stories and teach knitting.

Mr Miller, 74, whose family have owned 400-acre Blackwater Farm for 112 years, said: "Some farmers diversify with a farm shop or letting out holiday accommodation."

"I doubt many of them have turned part of their farm into a school and have 23 kids running about at lunchtime."

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"The cow store has been a rubbish store for the last 50 years and was about to fall down so we had to do major work on it anyway. At about the same time Anne was about to lose her job at the school and things just fell into place."

Hollyfields, which has been approved by Ofsted, a building inspector and fire officer, charges £1,550 a term.

Mrs Miller, 50, said parents in the village, where she taught for 17 years, had asked her to set up the school.

She added: "We tend to do literature and maths in the morning and in the afternoons we do humanities and art. We have lots of animals running about and the children get to interact with them and see life cycles all year round."

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The pupils - 12 boys and 11 girls - have their hot lunches cooked at a school in a neighbouring village and sent over by taxi every day.

Sarah Neish, whose children Claudia, seven, and Alasdair, six, are at Hollyfields, said: "Chickens wander in and out of the playground and on fine days the children are outside, learning the life cycle of the blackberry while they pick enough to make into pies next day."