FLUSHING School is set to move if a deal can be reached between Cornwall county council and the owner of a prospective new site in the village.

Headteacher Joy Crosland yesterday spoke of an "exciting but precarious" situation where a site has been selected and money has been set aside.

Flushing is first in the queue for a slice of the £61 million Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funding set aside for a schools improvement programme in Cornwall. The present building is too small to meet the needs of the village's growing population, and the county's PFI team accepts that moving the school is a priority.

Trevor Cooper, a PFI education officer, said: "Flushing is one of the schools we are particularly interested in because it is on a restricted site in the village. It will have to move to a new site."

Negotiations are currently underway between the school, the county council and the owner of a prospective site site.

Mrs Crosland would not reveal the precise location of the site, although she confirmed that it is somewhere in the village. Even her own staff don't know its exact whereabouts, she said.

"We are on the first rung of the ladder. We have got the opportunity to put forward a bid for this money. It's very exciting but it's also quite precarious."

In two week's time, the school has to write to the council to confirm that it wants to be part of the scheme.

But the delicate negotiations over the land are still ongoing, and a site must be acquired by the school before any money is released.

Mrs Crosland said a business plan, drawn up by all 27 schools involved in the programme, has to be submitted later this year.

"The excitement about moving to a new school is tinged with anxiety for everyone concerned," she said. "Like all opportunities it comes with a time scale attached, and we are depending on the co-operation of the other schools involved. We have still got a long way to go before they hand us the keys."