HIGHWORTH Pre-School celebrated its 50th birthday in style.

More than 250 people, including present and past staff and pupils, enjoyed a lovely celebration in the sunshine.

In a remarkable coincidence, the woman who helped found the pre-school 50 years ago before moving to Australia was in town at the time of the party.

Gillian Flight put an advert in the Adver decades ago asking for Highworth mums to get together and set up a pre-school in the town.

Manager Helen Simpson was delighted that Gillian could join them on such a special occasion.

She said: "Wow, what are the chances?

"It was brilliant to have Gillian there, she was in the country for a school reunion that was being held on the same day and made time to visit us.

"It was also great that so much of the community came together to help us celebrate this anniversary.

"We've been there for generations of Highworthians - grandparents of some of the 94 children on our books used to come here.

"People like the community feel this has and a lot of that is down to our loyal staff.

"This was a great event and I was very proud of it all."

The Westrop choir sang songs and the Mayor of Highworth Julia Bishop popped down to congratulate the staff and present them with a plaque commemorating the half-century anniversary.

The pre-school had received a Good Ofsted report just a couple of weeks prior to the birthday bash.

This was quite an achievement because it had narrowly avoided closure last year.

Highworth residents voted overwhelmingly to save the pre-school after a proposal to evict existing staff and use the building for a new nursery was put forward.

The new nursery still opened on the former site of a children’s centre near Westrop, but Highworth Pre-School was spared, much to the town's relief.

Helen added: "The support and positive comments we've had from the Highworth community has been amazing.

"It's been a really tough year but we are so glad that we've managed to come out the other side of it.

"We were honoured to have Julia Bishop attend the event and now we have a plaque to say that we've officially made it to 50 years.

"Now, we just want to continue as we are for many more generations to come.

"I turned 50 this year too, so I've had two 50th birthday celebrations in one year!"