Between Christmas and New Year Archbishop Holgate’s School was at the very centre of the relief effort to the people of York following the flooding of the River Foss and River Ouse. On Boxing Day the school swung into action as an Emergency Rest Centre for local residents and their pets. Initially over 100 people, along with dogs, cats and even rabbits were housed in the class rooms of the English block. The school provided warmth, protection, food and beds for people affected, whilst volunteers and council workers assessed people’s needs. Thankfully, after some had spent three nights sleeping on camp beds in classrooms all of the evacuees were appropriately rehoused.

Whilst all this activity was taking place in the Harris Building, the Main school acted as a base for teams from the police, army, mountain rescue, the ambulance service and the City of York Council Major Incident Response Team (MIRT). Many rescue teams from across the country showed out in force to help out including some from Merseyside, Exmouth and Dartmoor as more local teams had been sent to Cumbria. Staff from Devon and Cornwall Mountain rescue slept in the staff room, whilst others grabbed a few hours laid on benches in the Main Hall or on mats in the gymnasium.

None of this impressive response could have been possible without the hard work and dedication of a small core of staff at the school who worked tirelessly. This included Site Supervisor Jake Drummond, Cleaning Supervisor Denise Rafferty and Catering Supervisor Matt Richardson. They did a fantastic job liaising with the different agencies, providing food and hot drinks throughout the day and night, and keeping the place clean and tidy whilst the emergency teams were in and out. Jake Drummond said: “The community response has been outstanding – residents and businesses donated more food than we were able to cope with, which meant we were able to distribute the excess to other places where it was needed, such as Arclight, Carecent and other hostels.”

Other school staff also spent some time in the school providing support where it was needed too. They were joined by students and parents who also gave up their Christmas holidays. Holly Hardstaff, one of the schools 6th form Students Leaders, volunteered her time sorting through all the items that had been donated to the school. “It was amazing to see what a sense of community spirit York really has! The donations really were second to none; from whole sets of toiletries and cleaning products, to new clothes and bedding, although there was the odd can of empty deodorant! The help local people wanted to give the people affected by the floods was outstanding! York’s generosity shone through in times of dire need for certain people.”

School Chaplain Richard Nihill said: “I was able to spend some time in the school with both the emergency services and with people evacuated, chatting as well as helping out practically. It was certainly eye-opening. It is not often the car park contains a mobile police command unit, rescue boats, army lorries, a fish and chip van feeding tired rescue workers and a mobile coffee van from Bridlington giving them warm drinks. Compassion is one of our school’s core Christian values and it was wonderful that we could facilitate that concept being put into practice by caring people from the locality and across the UK. I witnessed Archbishop Holgate’s pupils bring in bags of food from their pantries, supermarkets drop off huge quantities of prime meat, our own staff work tirelessly and numerous emergency personnel from Caterick to Cornwall thank the school for its welcome. A very memorable week indeed.”

There's more pictures from Archbishop Holgate's here.