Huntington School head teacher Chris Bridge has a talent for the telling phrase from which his English students would do well to learn.

In the past he condemned the worst parts of his school as "prison camp structures". Today he likened them to a shanty town.

Mr Bridge's descriptions are colourful and all too accurate. Supposedly temporary classrooms which have been used by hundreds of children over 30 years are now falling apart.

Here, the wood is rotten. There, the plasterboard is split and crumbling. The damp is made worse by ancient heaters with only two settings: too cold or too hot.

This is shameful. Many a factory or office worker would not tolerate these conditions, calling on the union rep to take action. But schoolchildren have no union, and a teacher walk-out would disrupt their pupils' education.

Instead both teachers and pupils have shown remarkable stoicism. They have done more than just endure their environment, they have thrived despite it.

Huntington is an excellent school. The latest league tables place it within the top 50 of 1,900 specialist schools. This would be an impressive record for a state-of-the-art facility; for Huntington, with its dilapidated classrooms, it is remarkable. We are left to wonder what more it might achieve if conditions were better.

Alas, we are left to wonder still. City of York Council's £2 million bid for replacement buildings has been turned down by the Government. That will leave parents questioning Tony Blair's much-vaunted commitment to education.

However, it is important to note that the failure of Huntington's bid contrasts with Whitehall's £2.4 million grant for a new York special school. There is only a finite pot of Government money.

Perhaps the council needs to re-examine its wish list. Next time, a less ambitious, no-frills bid, shorn of dance studios and other extras, might prove successful.

The priority is simple: decent, comfortable classrooms for Huntington, and an end to the scandal of the shanty school.

Updated: 10:42 Tuesday, April 01, 2003