PLANS to move the library out of a York primary school and into a local community hall would be detrimental to the children's education, according to governors.

The governing body at New Earswick School has raised concerns that a plan to move the Explore Library, which is currently on the same site as the school, into the Folk Hall would impact on the childrens' education.

The school's head teacher, Carole Dickson, speaking on behalf of the governors, said: "This is devastating news for the school, particularly as we try to respond to the findings of our 2013 OFSTED report, which said that 'more able pupils do not read as well as they should and consequently few reach the higher levels' and that the school needed to ensure that pupils 'have more opportunities to read a wide range of up-to-date and interesting reading materials, both fiction and non-fiction, so that they learn to read for pleasure.'

"Currently, every child in the school visits the library once a week and this simply would not happen if it were to move to the Folk Hall due to the amount of teaching and learning time that would be lost."

The library move is part of a Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT) consultation on its plans for New Earswick which involve a large scale extension of Red Lodge care home, developments at the Folk Hall, building a new play area and improving open space and community facilities.

The York Explore library opened as part of the Children's Centre at New Earswick primary in 2008 and Mrs Dickson said it would seem a waste of money to move it now.

Fiona Williams, Chief Executive of Explore Libraries, said: “We are currently looking at the option of moving the public library to the Folk Hall. We are talking with Joseph Rowntree and the school and will be conducting consultation with residents over the next few weeks.

“Explore is resourced to provide a public library service for the people of York in line with the statutory duty and our contract with the Council. We work with schools across the city, promoting the joy of reading and encouraging the development of literacy through the Summer Reading Challenge and the Bloodaxe Challenge as well as providing access to authors and other activities.

“However, we do not provide school library services as that is the responsibility of the school.

“If the library does move then we would very much want to continue working with the school and we are in discussion with them as to which books we might leave behind to enable them to develop their school library.”