A PRIMARY school in Chandler's Ford celebrated its golden anniversary with a host of activities.
St Swithun Wells Catholic Primary School in Hillcrest Avenue marked the occasion on Friday, July 1.
The school, which was originally sited at Holy Cross Church in Eastleigh and named after a local saint who lived at what is currently Brambridge Garden Centre, Otterbourne, moved to its current location in 1972 to accommodate the growing community it served.
Celebrations followed a packed timetable for the day which included a year group cake bake-off competition (won by Year 4), Mass for the whole community and a picnic lunch on the field.
One of the main highlights was digging up the time capsule that was buried in year 2000. One of the children who buried the capsule is now a member of staff and was delighted to watch it being unearthed by the school caretaker.
Buried under a slab and in three feet of concrete the contents were largely well preserved – they included a tea towel with a face of all the people at the school in year 2000, newspaper, coins, a cassette tape of recordings of children's voices, stamps, photographs, a school prospectus and Millenium Baby gel toys. These toys were supposed to open their eyes at the millennium and many children at the time stayed up to watch it happen, but the toys did not open their eyes.
During the day, the children also created their own birthday cards to put into a new time capsule they buried during the celebrations.
The school welcomed past members of staff, headteachers, governors, parents and (now grown up) children who visited the school during the day. The time capsule and contents were on display in a classroom along with school memorabilia and photographs from 1972 to the present day.
After Scotty the clown paid a visit and the Glee Club performed for everyone, the day was rounded off with live music and a barbecue.
Headteacher Anne-Marie Jordan said: “After Covid and the pandemic it’s great to be able to hold these celebrations again. Our school has a real strong community feel and we’ve made a huge effort to open our celebrations to anyone that’s had contact with our school over the last 50 years.”
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