Classes of Muslim schoolgirls in Oxford are facing an uncertain future because their school site is about to be sold.

The Lawn Upton building in Littlemore, where the Iqra School has been based for five years, is owned by the Diocese of Oxford and the county council, and has been put up for sale.

The trust running the Iqra School has been invited to bid for the school site, which has an estimated value of more than £2.5m.

But trustees fear they could be outbid by developers, leaving 140 schoolgirls aged nine to 16 without a permanent base.

Dr Hojjat Ramzy, chairman of the trustees, said sealed bids were due in next Thursday and added that the school intended to bid for the site.

He said: "We will be putting forward a bid, but the bidding process is secret so we don't know if we are going to be successful.

"We are very concerned that we could be outbid by developers and if we are not successful then the future is very dark and I do not know if there will be any light at the end of the tunnel.

"If the school has to close, we will have to shut the school on Christmas Eve when everyone else is celebrating, because the lease runs up until Christmas Eve.

"There are 30 staff at the school and staff and pupils are very on edge - they do not want a whole academic year to slip away from them."

Dr Ramzy said teachers at the Islamic faith school taught 15 GCSEs on the national curriculum, with lessons taught in English.

"The ethos is Islamic but the lessons are in English - some of our GCSE results have been the highest in the whole of Oxfordshire," he added.

Earlier this year, Fozia Tenvir, headteacher at the school, said she feared for the future of some of her pupils if the school, in David Nicholls Close, was forced to close.

She was worried that some pupils would be sent to Pakistan, or to Islamic boarding schools in Manchester or Bedford.

John Mitchell, a spokesman for Oxfordshire County Council's education department, said: "While we have been happy to help the Iqra School with temporary provision of premises for a while we do not, unfortunately, have the capacity to do so on a permanent basis."

He added that the Oxford Diocese was overseeing the bidding process for the site.

Dr Ramzy added that Oxford East MP Andrew Smith was supporting the Iqra School's bid to buy the Lawn Upton building.

Ansa Khan, 16, said: "We are asking everybody to help us in any way they can to save the school."

Fellow pupil Faiqa Khan, 14, added: "This is the best school for us to learn and get the best results."