Burnholme closure: ‘They were the best days of our lives’ (From York Press)

Burnholme closure: ‘They were the best days of our lives’

8:56am Wednesday 22nd February 2012 in News By Haydn Lewis, Education reporter

Flashback to 2003 and Gavin Wilson, right, celebrates his GCSE results with fellow pupils

A FORMER Burnholme Community College student who campaigned to keep the school open in 2009 has described fresh plans to close it as “crazy”.

Lee Wright, 18, who lives in Burnholme, is now studying software development at York College, but back in 2009, as a plucky 15-year-old pupil, he spearheaded a campaign to save his then school.

On hearing yesterday that the school could close in 2014, Lee said: “When I was threre, the school was like my second home and the teachers and pupils I was with were amazing. We had some great times.

“If they closed Burnholme, it would be a huge loss not just to the pupils, but the community and the primary schools around here.”

As a pupil studying for his GCSEs, Lee wrote to the Queen and the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, asking them to intervene to keep the school open and he said it again needed to get the public involved to try and keep it open.

He said: “It’s sad to think that all the hard work we put in back in 2009 was for nothing. They should try and do what I did and show the public just what the school means to the pupils and staff.”

Another former pupil, Gavin Wilson, 24, of Huntington, also lamented the possible closure.

Gavin, who now lives in Leeds and works as a sports journalist, said he would not be where he was today without Burnholme.

He was left quadraplegic after being injured in a fall from his mountain bike while riding over a jump at the St Nicholas Fields park, in Tang Hall, in June 2001 and he said the school played a huge part in his life after the accident.

He said: “I was at Burnholme from 1998 to 2003 and had an absolutely brilliant time. It was just such a good school and a really close knit community.

“I’m just gutted it could be closing. The school really helped me after my accident.

“Teachers and pupils just couldn’t do enough for me and I came out of there with nine GCSEs despite being in hospital for such a long time.

“The school should do everything it can to stave off this closure.”

As The Press revealed online on Monday, education chiefs have begun talks to close Burnholme Community College due to falling rolls. If agreed, the phased closure would mean the school would shut in 2014. There is a parent’s meeting at the school tonight to discuss the closure plans.

‘Student lets to blame’

RESIDENTS have demanded even tighter restrictions on student lets in York after their growth was partially blamed for the proposed closure of Burnholme school.

A public meeting was staged in Osbaldwick on Monday about City of York Council plans to impose a 20 per cent threshold on the number of houses of multiple occupation (HMO) – often lived in by students – which would be allowed in any street or area under a new “Article 4” planning rule.

Hours before the meeting, Burnholme’s head teacher, Simon Gumn, said the school had been fighting a losing battle to attract more pupils, partly because of an expansion in the number of student homes in the main Burnholme and Tang Hall catchment area.

Parish chairman Coun Mark Warters said the Burnholme closure was raised at the meeting, which was attended by about 40 to 50 people, a majority of whom called for a lower threshold of zero to five per cent.

He said he feared the Burnholme closure would be followed by other future school closures and called on the University of York to reconsider its opposition to the introduction of the article 4 rules.

A university spokesman said: “It is an over-simplification to blame the school’s difficulties on the numbers of student houses in its catchment area. We believe an Article 4 direction is unnecessary as the City of York Council already has sufficient powers under the 2004 Housing Act to tackle any isolated problems caused by the very small minority of irresponsible landlords, tenants and/or mismanaged properties.”