THEIR school is universally known as a tin can and they shiver in the winter and swelter in the summer.

But they are still chirpy enough to laugh about the fact that a group of ducks often takes a swim in the pool of water which collects on the flat roof of their school.

"When you go to music you can see the ducks on the roof," says Katrina Wallbanks, eight.

These three children are pupils at Hob Moor Junior School in Acomb, York, built in the 1950s from corrugated aluminium, along with the neighbouring infant school.

They have got used to leaking roofs and rattling window frames, but things are soon to change and the ducks are going to have to find a new place to swim.

The junior school is to merge with the infant school in September and then, three years later, a new brick building will open its doors.

From September, there will also be a new head teacher Karl Jarvis, moving back from Wigginton to a school where he was once deputy as well as a new badge and a revamped school uniform.

The new badge will show the tree of knowledge growing from Hob Moor.

Parents and children are to vote on which new uniform garments they would like introduced.

The three pupils have gathered to model them for our photographer and clearly approve of the new look.

Kieran Thornhill, nine, is particularly taken with the bright yellow T-shirt he's wearing.

The children also talk about the two schools being joined together.

Aimee Scott, ten, says: "I was scared when I moved up to the junior school, I knew who the teacher was but I didn't know what their personality was."

"At the moment we just see the infants when we're out playing or when we're in the dining hall," says Katrina.

"They won't have to be scared now."

They say the new building in 2005 will not just affect the pupils but parents and other people living in the area.

Next to the school will be a new special school and a Sure Start centre to help local families with health, education and childcare.

Aimee says: "One of the dinner ladies used to come to this school and she's quite excited that we're going to get a new school because she used to come here."

Kieran says if he had to sum up the school's reputation it would be as "the tin can school".

But he says pupils and parents also care a lot about the school and its future development.

"People are very proud of Hob Moor School and I think they will be even more proud with a brick school."

Updated: 09:17 Wednesday, May 29, 2002