School prepares to accommodate more students (From York Press)

Archbishop Holgate’s CE School prepares to accommodate more students

8:39am Tuesday 5th March 2013 in News By Mark Stead, Political Reporter

THE impending closure of a York secondary school has left another preparing the ground for a new influx of pupils.

Archbishop Holgate’s CE School has unveiled plans for a new classroom block at its Hull Road site so it can cater for more students following City of York Council’s decision to shut Burnholme Community College, the city’s smallest secondary school.

Burnholme is being wound down to full closure by August 2014 and Archbishop Holgate’s will assume its catchment area.

A planning application submitted to the council said the school now needed an additional 1,300sqm of space for classrooms and teaching facilities, saying it had already found extra places for current Year 8 to 11 Burnholme students and Year 7 pupils who were due to go there.

A planning statement said the “increased popularity” of Archbishop Holgate’s and good transport links meant more east York pupils and their families were choosing it and its sixth form had expanded from 19 students to 207 in four years, exceeding the 160 originally expected.

This meant it was “oversubscribed”, with 1,036 pupils now on its roll, and that had sparked a review of its “structure and organisation”.

If its plans are approved, the two-storey block would include eight classrooms, a reception office, a staff room and other facilities, with the statement saying its design would mirror that, of the school’s recently-completed sixth-form centre. Cycle space would be moved and a replacement car park would be provided.

It said: “The school still serves the local community and, with the gradual closure of the nearest secondary school, Burnholme Community College, there is an even greater demand on school places.”

"The school has played a significant role in providing the best outcomes for families affected by the closure of Burnholme.”

Burnholme’s closure was sealed by the council last summer despite a campaign to save it after the authority was told only 40 students had applied to go there in the current school year, leaving it with a pupil roll of 270 out of a possible 600.

Education bosses said keeping it open until 2021 would cost at least £5.2 million and pupil numbers were unlikely to rise to the necessary levels.