A GROUP of dedicated teachers and parents has launched a campaign to re-establish a private prep school in the former Harenc School buildings.

Harenc, a boys-only prep school with around 94 pupils, went into administration at Easter when it ran out of money, with its pupils being forced to transfer to other schools.

Now some of the former staff at the school and some past parents are hoping to open a new school in the same building in Rectory Lane, Foots Cray.

The new school, to be called the William Smith Prep School, will take both boys and girls and, if it gets off the ground, will be run on a much smaller, more financially manageable scale.

The parents involved say they just want other children to have chance of the sort of education their sons had.

Most of their children have already left Harenc for secondary school.

For the teachers, it is a labour of love.

They say “Harenc was like a family” and they want to recreate that kind of school atmosphere, but at a cost more affordable to parents.

Rishil Patel,13, spent eight years at Harenc and is now at St Olave’s School in Orpington.

He said: “It was a good school; it was small and nice.

“I feel sad for those children who are not now able to have what I had.”

The group’s first and most important task is to raise the £120,000 it needs to rent the building back from the church authorities which own it, and to launch the school as a charitable trust.

The group has a business plan and is already applying to trusts and organisations for grants.

Anyone who wants to offer help, donations, or would like more information, can email wsprepschool@gmail.com