A ROW has blown up between parents and education chiefs over an out-of-school club at a York school.

Parents with youngsters at Robert Wilkinson School, in Strensall, are angry that since the closure of the Frendz Club, there has been no provision for working parents who need care for youngsters during the school holidays.

Single mum Sharon Savage, 44, of Lowcroft, Strensall, said she really struggled to find child care for her ten-year-old son, Peter, and that there were dozens of others like her.

"Including Christmas, the out-of-school club will have been closed for a total of ten weeks this year, which is no good to anyone and has made a lot of people very upset," said Mrs Savage.

"The Frendz Club was a lifeline to many of us and since it closed, the school has made no effort to take it over.

"Children of nine and ten don't want to be with childminders. They want to be able to play with their friends, and that can only happen in a club."

In November last year the Evening Press reported that workers and parents of children at the Frendz Club were told that the club would close at the end of the year, leaving about 100 children without adequate care provision before and after school.

A spokeswoman for the Frendz Club, which runs eight clubs in Yorkshire, said the closure related to the "personal reasons" of director Kathleen Wallace. The group also runs two independent schools and three private nurseries in Wakefield and Barnsley.

The school organises breakfast and after-school clubs for youngsters, but does not currently have any holiday clubs.

Rosemary Flanagan, early years and extended schools co-ordinator at City of York Council, said it was not the school's responsibility to run such clubs.

She said for any voluntary group or parents' co-operative to run a holiday club they had to go through an Ofsted application.

This process, which includes police and health and safety checks, can take up to 26 weeks, and Mrs Flanagan said she was not aware of any applications in at present for Robert Wilkinson School.

Mrs Flanagan said: "If there are enough parents saying that they want this provision then the council can support them in setting up a group, but they would have to show that the facility would be financially viable.

"There would have to be a minimum of 16 children for such a facility to run and be financially viable, because three adults would have to be employed looking after them."

Head teacher Richard Ludlow, governors and council officials will be meeting parents at the school on Thursday at 6pm to discuss the matter.

Mr Ludlow said he did not wish to comment.

Updated: 11:16 Tuesday, October 04, 2005