PUPILS who signed a good luck card for their form teacher when they left school six decades ago saw it again when he turned up to their reunion.

John Kennedy was one of two ex-teachers - both in their 80s - who were special guests at the party organised by former St Joseph’s School students.

More than 40 of them descended on the Moose Hall to see slideshows of old photographs and class albums and enjoy a good gossip about their schooldays with lots of cake and refreshments, and music from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

It was all organised by Maryrose Higgins, Ida Walker, and Krystyna Bartoszewska.

Ida said: “It was absolutely brilliant, we had a great time.

“One of our form teachers, John Kennedy, was there and he brought along his Good Luck card which we’d all signed when he left the school.

“Everyone really enjoyed themselves and a lot of us continued to the King’s Arms after the event ended.

“We had a lot of food left over, which we gave to a street chaplain to pass on to the homeless.”

Mr Kennedy said it had been a wonderful event. “It was so good to see so many people for whom I have very happy memories.”

Krystyna said: “We had a really lovely evening. There was a lot of reminiscing and nostalgia, it was great. People brought photos with them that we’d never seen before.

“There is a group of us in Swindon who went to St Joseph’s and still meet up regularly, so of course they were all there. However, it was also great to reunite with people we hadn’t seen for many years.”

After over a year of planning, the event was as successful as the old friends had hoped and they hope to repeat it again soon..

Krystyna added: “Every 10 years, we host a reunion event like this one.

“We aren’t going to wait another 10 years for the next one because, to be honest, some of us might not make it to the 70th anniversary.

“Some of us have thought about making it yearly and we’d like to make it more of a regular thing,” she explained.

“It’s so much easier to keep in touch with people these days, so now that everyone’s reconnected, we’ve all promised to see each other again.”