Pupils at fire-hit Fulford School will return to eight temporary classrooms in four portable buildings when school resumes after the Easter break on Monday.

Four classrooms in the schools Craft, Design & Technology (CDT) block of the York secondary school were gutted when the blaze took hold of the wing last month.

Ten other classrooms were damaged in the fire, which was caused by a faulty convector heater.

York's assistant director of education, Philip Wells, said : "There has been work going on all over Easter to try and bring back into use as many of the rooms that were damaged as possible.

"Work to put right the rooms that were badly damaged will go on over the summer into the autumn. There will be a major re-build of four classrooms."

He said temporary arrangements had been made for a CDT room to be set up in the gym area at the end of the block.

This would be furnished with a mixture of salvaged equipment from the fire that was not too badly damaged and new equipment which had been bought in.

"There shouldn't be any difficulty with examinations," he said.

The school has applied for planning permission for the temporary classrooms to replace space lost in last month's fire.

The first two, to be placed at the rear of the main school building, will be removed by February 2000, when renovation work is complete, but the second two are to stay on a more permanent basis until April 2001, to address the rising levels of school admissions.

The application, to be presented to members of City of York Council's planning and transport committee tomorrow, states the school building's capacity of 950 is not sufficient to accommodate the 1,117 pupils currently attending.

A report states: "Due to this excess number of pupils, there is an existing demand for permanent classrooms. The proposed permanent buildings would therefore absorb current numbers of pupils as opposed to increasing admission levels.

"It is the school's intention to replace the portable buildings with permanent buildings in the future, but no exact details have yet been submitted."

More than 70 firefighters attended the blaze at the school in the early hours of March 8.

The temporary classrooms have been recommended for approval.

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