Memories are made of this...

Ex-pupils from the 30s, 40s, and 50s, will be rolling back the years when the school hosts a special party for its old boys and girls, who will have a chance to have a chat about decades gone by.

Deputy head and history teacher Clive Corbett, who has helped to arrange the festivities, said: "We'll have a get-together in the hall and then some memories and some music. Someone has even unearthed the old school song!

"Then we'll give them the chance to look round the school so they can see how much it has changed."

The school has certainly come a long way since it opened as Pershore County Senior School on January 12, 1932.

Originally intended to cater for up to 480 pupils, it has more than doubled its intake to 1,130 and has celebrated successes such as gaining a Chartermark, becoming one of the county's two beacon schools, and recently obtaining technology college status.

Mr Corbett has also been researching for a commemorative book since the school's 25th anniversary as a comprehensive in 1998.

He said: "We wanted to mark the school's 70th birthday with some sort of event and now we have also produced an 80-page booklet entitled A Celebration of 70 Years, which will be given out on the night."

The booklet came about after Mr Corbett appealed for old photographs and memorabilia through the Journal, he was then inundated with old pictures and documents, some of which feature in the booklet.

"We've got something from every decade," he said. "One lady has sent in a picture of the school's netball team from 1934, and someone's also sent in a class picture from the 1930s."

As well as the complementary brochure, the school has also produced a medal. One side depicts an inscription to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee, while the other marks 70 years of the school.

Some of the entries in the book come from the diaries of Major Pardoe OBE, who was its first headteacher and despite his name, had no military connections.

Mr Pardoe kept a book in which he would write entries detailing school life, some of which Mr Corbett has transcribed from the original document, which is now kept in his office.

Mr Pardoe's retirement was put off for a year because he wanted to reach 25 years service and he was awarded the OBE for outstanding work in the development of a secondary school in a rural area.

One of the entries said that during the war, the school had evacuees not only from Birmingham, but also Essex and London, 74 of whom attended the school.

The agricultural roots of the school, before the days of the national curriculum, are also retold, one entry tells of a man who came to the school to give a lecture on the Plum Tree Sawfly. The pigsties behind the minibus garage are one of the few things remaining from those days at the school.

He said that in the 40s and 50s, the school started to move away from its agricultural roots.

It was used as a distribution centre during the time of the evacuation, and was very patriotic, celebrating Empire Day.

The school maintains that tradition as the flag is raised on the Queen's birthday and for other royal occasions. He said he would not forget the first time he was asked to do that.

"The first time I ran the flag up the pole, I was asked by a man what the emergency was. It turned out I had it upside down, which is of course, a distress signal."

Its most famous pupils are believed to be footballers, ex-Birmingham City and Aston Villa goalkeeper, Kevin Poole, who now plays for Bolton Wanderers, and Bury player-manager Andy Preece. Locally, ex-mayor of Pershore and district and town councillor John Smith stands out as one example.

Mr Corbett said: "I believe the real success stories are still to come. We're in a nice position where we don't have to compete with other schools and we are seen as the school for the area.

He credits the school's success to its ethos. "It's the feel of the place, if you walk into a school you can immediately feel what sort of place it is," he said.