A major milestone has been reached in the fight to reopen St Bees School.

Trustees at the school have confirmed they have entered discussions with an educational group into the possibility of bringing education back to the site in September 2018.

The name of the group, whittled down from 13 interested parties, has not been revealed, but the trustees say a period of exclusivity has been agreed which means neither can talk to any third parties.

The 432-year-old school closed in June 2015, due to falling pupil numbers, and those involved in its future say they were faced with a number of key tasks.

These were to avoid going into administration and to make the best use of the school’s buildings in order to generate cash to bring education back to the site. And they claim success in those targets saying administration has been avoided; the school employs a number of people and has more than 100 visitors each week.

“We really had not dreamt that this would be possible so soon,” said a statement released by the trustees. “All of these factors strengthens our ability to maintain the site, and to aim for our ultimate goal.”

It went on: “The group with whom we are discussing the future of the school is an educational group with interests across South East Asia. We have just agreed a period of exclusivity, where they will not talk to anyone else and we will mirror this on our side.

“This is to allow time to see whether between us we can create a sustainable model for reopening St Bees School. Achieving this milestone of exclusivity does not mean a school will re open.

“There is much hard work, many bear traps and challenges to face over the coming months. “However, we approach this next period with a determination to find out whether there is a sustainable model, and whether we can re-open in September 2018.”

An advert placed in the Times’ Education Supplement earlier this year resulted in 13 expressions of interest coming forward from those interested in running the school.

Some of the ways the school is generating income is by reopening the swimming pool and letting out space to various organisations including the nursery St Bees Little Learners which opened in October.