Bishop Alexander L.E.A.D Academy, on Wolsey Road, Newark, celebrates 70th anniversary with schoolwide history project

A school has held a special end of term celebration day to mark its 70th anniversary.

The Bishop Alexander L.E.A.D Academy, on Wolsey Road, Newark, welcomed its first pupils in January 1955, with an official opening that summer, and its first full academic year starting that September.

The school has seen significant changes over the last seven decades, including a major rebuild in 2009, but one thing that has not changed is its commitment to children’s learning,

Staff wanted to use the milestone anniversary as an opportunity, and so, since the start of the school year, pupils have been learning about the school’s history and completing special projects.

Former pupils and staff were contacted to record their experiences in a ‘lived history’ of the school, which could then be shared with the younger generation.

Archive materials and photos were also gathered, including the original student rolls, and a handwritten head teacher’s diary which chronicles daily life around the school from 1955 through to 1995, covering everything from school trips and sports days, to work experience, and funny excerpts.

After a month and a half of work, everything was finally brought together in a special end of term celebration and assembly.

School head, Nicky Spencelayh, said: “Coming in as a new head teacher, you often spend the whole time looking forward and perhaps not understanding the importance of the past for the community.

“So for me, hearing these stories, and looking at these objects and photos in the school, has been wonderful.

“That’s the biggest thing. Seeing the children understand that history isn’t just in the text books. It’s being able to touch, and see, and speak to that history that is around them.

“We can take for granted what is around us. This building, even the trees outside were put there for a purpose with a specific learning reason in mind.”

“I sort of joke, this is 70 years, but when we come to celebrate 100 years will I be invited back?

“You just live it in the moment, but you become a part of that history.”

As part of the day’s celebrations, children dressed up and each classroom was decorated to match a different decade, stretching from the 1950s to the current day.

Cartoons from the 80s and toys from the 90s were presented as almost ancient artefacts — even an original iPod Touch.

Many pupils also have older family members that attended Bishop Alexander, and all were welcome at the end of the school day to enjoy an afternoon tea, while looking around and viewing the children’s work.

Among the special guests was deputy head from 1987 to 1998, Anne Readman, who fondly remembered her time at the school.

“The school is totally different to how it was,” she said. “But one thing that is exactly the same is just how happy the children are.

“They’re very communicative and proud of their school.

“In the old building, which was too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer, it could be quite difficult.

“But the lovely children and staff made it a wonderful place to work.”

Anne also took the opportunity to meet with parents, some of whom she had actually taught when they were young.

She said she was thrilled to hear them talk “so enthusiastically about their time at Bishop 'in the old days'“, and how community visits and teaching had “shaped their lives, and consequently the parents they have become.”