Every child at a village primary school has written to television presenter Nick Knowles in the hope his DIY SOS team can help them to get a new building.

Chirton associate headteacher Amy Bekker-Wrench is launching an appeal to raise £500,000 for a hall that would become the nucleus for a whole new school.

The school has just two mobile classrooms and no inside space for PE lessons, a library or meetings. The original Victorian building on the opposite side of The Street is in a bad state of repair and is only used at lunchtimes.

She said: “The children wanted to do something to help and they have seen DIY SOS on the TV so they decided to write.

“But what we really need is a generous benefactor who could give us a donation to get the appeal underway.”

Although she is not pinning her hopes on the BBC show coming to the school’s rescue she has already seen the power letter writing can have on the school’s fortunes.

After the birth of Prince George the children wrote to Prince William and Kate telling them how wonderful life was at their village school and tried to persuade them to enrol the prince.

The school received a letter back to say how impressed they were with their letters.

Mrs Bekker Wrench believes the positive publicity helped to increase pupil numbers at the school, which in September 2013 had just 19 children on its roll and was under threat of closure.

Its future is now assured and it has 44 pupils and many more registered for September.

The school hopes that if it can raise enough money for a new hall it will be able to add classrooms and create a whole new school.

It is hoped the old Victorian building can be sold and this could add more than £200,000 to the fund. The new hall would be available for community use.