An Irish language pre-school in east Belfast, which faced opposition when it opened several years ago, says it hopes to start a bunscoil this autumn.
It hopes to take on its first batch of junior infants in September if funding can be secured to pay a teacher and classroom assistant.
It is also moving to a new site with the backing of several hundred thousand pounds from the Irish Government's Shared Island Fund.
The money will be used to provide a mobile classroom as a permanent home for the school which currently uses a church hall.
The school was the idea of Linda Ervine, an east Belfast community worker, who discovered the language and grew to love and learn it.
Her Turas group began offering Irish classes in the predominately unionist east of the city.
They started out catering for a dozen people and currently have around 500 registered learners.
Naíscoil na Seolta - the Nursery School of Sails, a nod to east Belfast's maritime history - had to abandon plans to set up in a loyalist housing estate after opposition in 2021.
But it found temporary premises and has since flourished.
If funding is secured, it will be offering integrated, Irish language education.
Ms Ervine expects around seven pupils in the first junior infants class.
There will be no state funding from Stormont's Education Department until numbers grow.
"Well it's a big move. Obviously, financially we're going to have to carry this ourselves for a couple of years and that causes a few sleepless nights.
"But you can't ask parents to sign up to something that doesn't exist. But once it's real parents want to get on board," said Ms Ervine.
The dozen or so pupils who currently attend the nursery are all children of families who live in east Belfast.
Nursery leader Gearóidín Monroe said the children were mostly from homes where the parents were just beginning to learn Irish themselves.
"Our children are going home with a range of vocabulary and they're able to point out to their parents or their grandparents objects around the house.
"They have this superpower, this knowledge that isn't always within the home, so it's a real confidence booster for them."
