A small village school has raised £270,000 - including promises and pledges - to help pay for a new hall and gymnasium.

But work at South Moreton Primary School, near Didcot, cannot begin until the governors find another £70,000.

"It's a tall order," said Dr David Ebbs, fundraising co-ordinator of the project, which is urgently needed to overcome cramped conditions in the largely Victorian main building.

He added: "There is so little space in the hall that we have to have four performances of the annual Christmas play in order to accommodate all the parents."

Headmaster Keith Eaton said: "The existing hall, which doubles as a gym, is only 9m by 5m. It means we can only have one full assembly a week, when it is a squeeze to get all 130 pupils in."

South Moreton School has just received a School Achievement Award.

It has been waiting for a new hall since the early 1970s when the village was part of Berkshire.

But after local government reorganisation, the expansion of the school slipped off Oxfordshire County Council's priority list. So parents and governors decided to find the money themselves.

Tom Coates, chairman of the governors, said they had abandoned a scheme to re-erect a second-hand building in favour of a purpose-built hall and gymnasium on the playing fields.

The county education authority will match local funding with a £125,000 grant, and Wantage MP Robert Jackson helped launch a final push for extra funds from the area.

Dr Ebbs said: "The PTA has raised funds, and people living in and around South Moreton have been generous with promises and pledges of professional help and materials as well as cash.

"We are now appealing for help from businesses in the Didcot area where many of our children live.

"As a village school, we realise it is much more difficult to persuade big firms to help us."