Decades of memories will be transported into the present at a York school in an inventive and ambitious oral history project, as Arj Singh discovered.

Burnholme Community College, which began life in September 1948 as Tang Hall County Secondary School, is piecing together its past through the eyes and ears of those who were there.

Former teachers, pupils and staff are being asked to commit their memories to tape, to form a “soundscape” to accompany an open exhibition at the school on Saturday, July 4.

The exhibition will coincide with a birthday summer fair, to celebrate the school’s 60th anniversary.

The project is the idea of head teacher Simon Gumn, who wanted to trace the school’s history through the people who had experienced it first hand. “There is little information within the local authority and some old archived information has been lost in time,” he said.

“So to help celebrate and commemorate our great school and remember some of the characters who have made Burnholme such a vibrant place to be, we want to hear from ex-students and staff to share their memories.”

Recorded stories will be used to form a sensory experience that will employ a corridor as a larger-than-life timeline, alongside artefacts found buried in the school’s loft.

“We want to use a corridor as a sort of timeline as you walk through it, with various artefacts from different eras being displayed with the different soundscapes,” said acting assistant head Graham Reagan.

“We found two boxes in the loft of the school, which contained fantastic items like the head teacher’s log from even before the school was open as Tang Hall School,” he said.

Mr Gumn is still searching for the potentially thousands of characters who can get the ball rolling on completing the jigsaw puzzle of Burnholme’s history.

“Already some ex-students have been in touch, but there are thousands of people in York who came here either as Tang Hall County Secondary, or as Burnholme, and we want to meet as many as possible and record their stories for posterity,” he said.

The project will begin with two drop-in recording sessions in the school canteen on May 16 and 23 from 9.30am until noon.

“We need people to come to two mornings and tell their story,” said Mr Reagan.

“Then we’ll put it together, edit it and make it into a soundscape.”

“It’s also an opportunity for ex-students, parents and grandparents to have a look around the school and see how it has changed from what they may remember,” he said.

“The school is not just ours now, it belongs to generations and generations.”