Fire-hit school closed for month

The fire is believed to have started on the first floor of the main building

A school in York which was severely damaged by fire will not reopen until the start of November.

Almost a third of York High School, on Dijon Avenue, was destroyed in the fire on Friday.

City of York Council said: "Despite the scale of the challenge we are aiming to get all the school's 896 pupils back into education from Monday 13 October."

The authority plans to split the pupils into age groups and fit them into temporary classrooms at other schools.

Lost coursework

That arrangement will be used for a fortnight from next Monday.

After the half-term holiday it is hoped that all pupils will be able to go back to 14 temporary classrooms on the York High School site.

A school spokesman confirmed that a large amount of pupils' coursework had been lost in the blaze but it had made arrangements with the exam board so they would not have to complete the work again.

IT experts are trying to recover work from some of the school's damaged computers.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

More than 60 firefighters tackled the blaze which appeared to have started on the first floor of the main building.