LAST week a junior school celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Thomlinson Junior School, in Wigton’s High Street, asked the community to send in memorabilia from the past five decades to be part of its celebrations.

The doors first opened in September 1968, with the official opening taking place in March 1969.

Headteacher, Brenda Fyrth thought 50 years needed to be marked with the school opening its doors to the general public, families, past pupils and former staff to have a look around.

The public were welcome to visit classes and see the work that was done based on the past five decades and pupils’ projects on the theme of 50.

Guided tours took place on Wednesday and Thursday as well as a party for the school on Thursday afternoon.

On Friday tours took place for invited guests as well as a coffee afternoon with tombola and a raffle in the school’s main hall.

Kathleen Bowe, former secretary at the school returned on Friday for the coffee afternoon.

She said: “I have lots of memories here. I came to work at the school in 1979.

“It’s weird because my children came to the school and so did my grandchildren.

“It’s lovely to see so many people here.”

On display were photos and memorabilia from over the decades that people enjoyed looking at.

Amanda Graham taught at the school for 12 years and was pleased to be back on Friday.

She said: “Coming here as a child and then teaching here for 12 years I feel like part of the furniture.

“It feels like nothing has changed. There are still things up in my old classroom on the wall that I had painted.

“It’s nice to see so many people and get to speak to so many people too.”

As part of the anniversary the school commissioned Dronetask to create a video of the school and was extremely pleased with the result.

Former headteacher Doug Hardy was delighted to return.

He worked at Thomlinson Junior from 1978 to 2013.

He said: “I spent so long here it feels normal being back and is always nice to be back in the school hall.”