IT'S York High School. That's the name of York's newest secondary school.

The title for the £10 million learning centre was the popular favourite among those people who cast their vote.

The Press reported last week how an interim governing body had picked two possible names after a ballot of children and the local community over the summer holiday.

Both Oaklands and Lowfield schools are to be replaced by a new state-of-the-art building, on the Oaklands site, in 2007.

The schools asked people to email them and state which of West York High School and York High School they liked the most.

All current pupils, and Year 6 pupils from feeder primary schools, were also asked to state their preference. There were a total of 301 responses, with 200 voting for York High School.

The school will cater for more than 1,000 pupils. The Government is contributing £8 million towards the total of modernising and extending the buildings on the Oaklands site, while City of York Council is putting forward the remaining £2 million.

Building work on the new school is expected to begin in May. The school proposals were given the go-ahead earlier this year.

Oaklands head teacher David Ellis, who will be in charge of the new school, said: "I'm very pleased with the new name, and I think it reflects our aspirations to become one of the best schools in York.

"The reason we included the word high in the name was to reflect the aspirations of people involved with the school to aim high and do their very best.

"We're going to brand the school as York High School, a sports college at the heart of the community."

He said they wanted to emphasise that the school's facilities would be available to the whole community.

"We see the new school as part of improving life for the people of the community as a whole, not just the 11 to 16-year-olds who attend the school," he said. "We've seen the start of that with the new sports centre that opened at the beginning of September."