A JUBILEE party was thrown for staff, pupils and parents at Holy Family Catholic Primary School yesterday to mark the school’s 50th anniversary.

Garden games, bouncy castles and picnics on the lawn were held at the school in Park North to bring an end to seven months of celebrations.

Acting headteacher Louise Brown, who has been at the school for three years, said the party was the perfect way to end such an important year.

“It’s been a big year for us,” she said. “It’s been great for the children to be involved in the history of the school and it’s given them a real sense of belonging. They’ve really enjoyed seeing photographs of their parents at the school when they were pupils. The parents have been very involved in all the events too which has been great.”

Back in February, an official celebration was held to mark 50 years of Catholic education at the school, which kicked off with a Mass at Holy Family Church. The oldest and youngest children processed in with a new school banner while a new school song written and composed by the children was performed.

The children have also created impressive mosaics at the entrance to the school, and worked hard to create a special jubilee garden.

“The garden club have worked really hard on the garden. It’s still very young at the moment, but we’ll be putting benches in soon and it will be well used,” said Mrs Brown.

Year 5 and 6 teacher Natalie Myatt said her pupils have enjoyed looking back at the school’s history, as well as looking into the future.

“We did lots of work based on the school 50 years ago, the school in the present day, and the school 50 years in the future,” she said.

“We had lots of imaginative ideas, from coming to school on hover scooters, eating space powder, to other ideas which included not even coming to school at all and having virtual teachers at home.

“It’s great for the children, they’ll go down in history as being here for the 50th year.”

As well as garden games including croquet, giant Jenga, snakes and ladders and hula-hooping, the children also enjoyed a bouncy castle in the sunshine.

David Dawson, chair of governors at the school, was also part of the celebrations.

The former history teacher at St Joseph’s School, where he taught the current Holy Family headteacher Karen Bathe, said: “Being a Catholic school, it is a very close community and a lot of the parents went to the school themselves.

“One of the big changes since my children came here is the cultural change in the school which is for the best. We’ve got over 20 languages being spoken here now, and the school often celebrates the different cultures. There’s strong Goan and Filipino communities as well as the Polish and Eastern Europeans so it’s really nice for everyone to join together and for the children, that is the world they are growing up in.

“It’s a lovely school, and it always has been.”