As Tenby Junior Community School nears the time of its closure as a dual stream school, pupils at the school have taken the time to recall nearly four decades of its existence.

Year 2 pupils, parents and former staff came together for an afternoon of memories. Junior pupils in each year group gave a presentation of a particular decade, bringing the highlights of the era since 1977, when the school was first opened, right up to the present day.

Year 5 started the afternoon with the decade 1977-1986. They were dressed in very bright clothing and some with wigs depicting the fashion at the time and sang songs related to that period in history such as Freddie Mercury’s ‘We are the Champions’ and Buck’s Fizz with ‘Making your mind up.’ They highlighted some of the significant times of the school, politics and what was happening globally at that time.

They started with the opening of the school, then called Tenby County Primary school, on June 3, the headmaster at the time being Mr. H. H. Mason. Three different headteachers were in post through this time. Mr. Mason retired through ill health and Mrs. Eira Thomas JP, then the deputy head at the school, was appointed head in 1981. She retired three years later and Mr. Peter Williams began his leadership of the school in September 1984. He has been the longest serving head in the life of this school and led the school for 17 years before retiring in 2001.

During this decade, Mrs. Averil Upham was redeployed to the school from Milford Haven in 1981; she has been the longest serving teacher at the school with 30 years service at the time of her early retirement in 2011. It was a pleasure to have her share the afternoon with us. Mrs. Llewellyn, headteacher, recalled some snippets; the first primary boys, named in the school’s log books, to receive county rugby certificates were Neil Rees, Michael Evans and Jamie Preston - some familiar names in the community now. When opened, the school was a state-of-the-art open plan design and as the challenges of trying to teach in such an open environment became apparent. Mr. Williams spent the first years of his headship building extensions to classrooms and closing in the rooms with windows and doors to replace the flimsy curtains that separated them.

Year 3 and 4 followed with the next decade 1987-1996. Pupils dressed in fashion from the era-lots of neon and some were dressed as characters from the highlighted films, books and TV personalities of the time, as well as some popular songs. During this era, some of the current teachers at the school were appointed, Mrs. Davies and Mrs. Hughes. Mr. Rhydian Rees, currently teaching in this year group, was at the school as a pupil in the Welsh Unit! Pupils sang the Macarena and music by the Spice Girls which had been changed to ‘If you want to be a junior.’ They reminded everyone of the terrible oil spillage from the tanker The Sea Empress that had affected the beaches in Tenby so badly and how Mr. Whitehurst, one of the teachers at the time, had got the school involved in the local clean-up. The only remaining member of staff who joined the school in 1987 is Mrs. Jenny Hicks. She is still working in the Learning Resource Centre (LRC) or the Attached Special Needs Unit as it was known as back then. Mrs. Hicks will be moving with the staff to the new Tenby Church in Wales VC Primary School in September with nearly 30 years of service to date.

Mrs. Llewellyn recalled that at this time, pupils in Tenby were taught French rather than Welsh and during 1994, 34 pupils accompanied by Mr. Williams and staff visited the beaches of the D-Day Landings in Northern France. It seemed appropriate to mention this, when earlier in the day, the pupils and staff had taken a two minutes silence to remember the 100 years since soldiers had been killed at the Battle of the Somme.

Dosbarth Cymraeg, the Welsh Unit, tackled the next decade 1997-2006. Dressed in house t-shirts, they took a very chronological approach to each year and detailed school, global and national news. The appointment of Mrs. Llewellyn, the first eisteddfod and twmpath, the Tsunami in Thailand and 9/11 disaster. Other staff had joined the school, notably Mr. Cox, Mrs. Wainwright, Mrs. Dowell, Mrs. Kelly and Mr. Scale. Accompanied by Mrs. Dowell and Amelia on guitar, the group sang a popular Max Boyce piece Hymns and Arias with words that reflected the visits to London and Cardiff by pupils through the era. Through this decade, the school was struggling to accommodate the rise in pupil numbers, which hit 305 at its peak and eventually, after much pressure from the head and governors, a new extension and refurbishment of the existing school took place. The beautiful stained glass window in the hall was designed by pupils. By the start of 2007, the school had become one of the few state-of-the-art environments for learning in Pembrokeshire, with the installation of interactive white board technology.

Finally, Year 6 began their presentation of the last decade 2007-2016 with a song One day at a time from their show. They were dressed in onesies, the phenomenon of the era and detailed the natural disasters and pandemics that affected the planet over this era. Pupils also recalled snow-fights between staff and pupils when Mrs. Llewellyn kept the school open during snow. The introduction of the walk to school campaign and Tour de Tenby were highlighted as awareness of sustainability has increased. Year 6 concluded their presentation with the song History by New Directions, but the words had been changed by pupils in Year 6 to reflect them moving on to new schools.

Mrs. Llewellyn explained that amalgamation of the infant and junior schools had been on the agenda initially since 2009, but eventually this changed to become a new English medium school, alongside a new Welsh medium school, both due to be opened in September 2016. What a great afternoon!

Everyone was treated to tea, squash and cakes, kindly donated by the parents and PTA. Thank you to everyone for sending such a great assortment of delicious cakes for this event and to the small band of PTA who served it. Special thanks to Mrs. Peters for coordinating the preparation of this part of the event and Mrs. Jill Jones with support staff for helping with the preparation.

Photographs from the past were on display and also learning logs that had been completed by pupils in Years 3 and 4 with the help of their parents and grandparents. These detailed some of the personal memories of their time at this school.

Enormous thanks go to the staff for preparing the pupils for this very memorable presentation at a time when they are busy writing reports, preparing for end of term concerts and also trying to pack up the school for an imminent move to the new building!