PRIMARY school children in York are urging the Queen to ensure Richard III’s remains are buried in the city.

Pupils at Headlands School, in Haxby, have been following the debate over where his final resting place should be after the announcement that the remains found under a Leicester car park were those of Richard III.

They have made their feelings clear in letters bound for Buckingham Palace.

Head teacher Sarah Wright, who took over at Headlands in January after being deputy head at Yearsley Grove School, said: “They are absolutely adamant he shouldn’t be buried in Leicester, where he was killed and lost his kingdom.

“They see it as quite selfish of Leicester to want to keep him there so they can turn him into a tourist attraction and make money out of him.”

Meanwhile staff and students at Barlby High School have joined the call for Richard III’s bones to be displayed at York Minster before he is buried at Leicester Cathedral.

History teacher Lousie Robson is leading the campaign for an official period of lying in state at the Minster, and has taken their suggestion to City of York Council.

Miss Robson said: “This would allow the people of the North to pay homage to a King who is still held in high regard in and around the Yorkshire area. It would also go some way to appeasing the thousands of people across the country, including Richard’s own descendants, who believe that the bones of the last Yorkist King of England should return to York.”

Miss Robson said the return of Richard to York, even only briefly, would be a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for children and residents to witness history themselves.

A petition to support the campaign is at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/45721 The Press reported yesterday that York Central MP Hugh Bayley was supporting an Early Day Motion in parliament to bury the king in York Minster.

He said: “The Leicester archaeologists got a licence to dig in return for promises that remains, if found, would be given a proper burial nearby.

“But no one knew at that point they would discover the body of a King so the normal terms for a licence for an archaeological need to be set aside.

“I want the Government to consider the merits of York alongside those of other places.”