Kewaigue Primary School, one of the oldest schools in the island, will celebrate its 130th anniversary next week.

To mark the occasion, the school will be reflecting on its long history.

Head teacher Adrian Shorthouse hoped pupils would take away a regard for the school’s rich past.

He said: ‘The one thing we want to get from this is an appreciation of just how much time has passed since the opening of this school.

‘Hopefully there will be recognition of just how many families have been at the school. We hope to see many of those families come back and see how much it’s changed because obviously it has.’

On October 10, the school will begin its week of celebration with a Victorian Day.

This will be followed by an exhibition full of photographs, memorabilia and children’s work.

Throughout the week, children will be researching what life was like back in 1892, when the school first opened, and significant events during subsequent years.

Former pupils and staff of the school are also being invited to visit the school on Thursday between 3pm and 4.30pm or Friday between 1.30pm and 4.30pm.

Mr Shorthouse said: ‘Pupils and staff will be coming in Victorian costumes on the Monday. We’ll be doing some Victorian style lessons that day and the kids will have a Victoria sponge bake off, which will need to be a traditional recipe.

‘Then we’ve got an exhibition on Thursday and Friday where we have all these artefacts in the hall and the children will also be contributing with their learning about the school and various periods since the school’s been open.

‘There are different parts of history they’re going to look at and that will all form part of this exhibition.

‘We’re hoping some of the ex-pupils will be around as well so they can share their memories of what it was like when they were here.’

All of this will be included in the children’s history curriculum so they can develop skills in research.

The head teacher added: ‘There’s lots of artefacts around the school that we’re getting down from the loft – photographs and documents.

‘If you look back at these times in history, the school has been there and been affected one way or another by a number of events.

‘My impression of the last eight years is that this is a really, very special place and lots and lots of people have a real fondness for and attachment to this school.’

Mr Shorthouse, who has been with the school for eight years, explained that a lot of work had been done to the building in the last decade particularly.

‘We’ve done a lot of work, certainly in the last 10 years, to improve the physical building, but even before that there were extensions and improvements,’ he said.

‘There’s been lots of physical changes. We’ve brought it up to standards you would expect today but there’s been extensions before my time and when people come back they will see some things are totally different.’