Did you go to this Norfolk high school, which is turning 60?
Acle Academy is celebrating its 60th annviersary on November 16, 2019. Picture: Acle Academy - Credit: Acle Academy
A Norfolk high school is asking for people to share their memories as it nears its 60th anniversary.
Acle Academy principal Helen Watts. Picture: ANTONY KELLY - Credit: Archant
Acle Secondary School opened its doors in November 1959 as part of a restructure of secondary education in the county.
The school was renamed Acle High School around 2000. It joined the Wensum Trust and converted to an academy in September 2012 and changed its name again to Acle Academy.
Despite some ups and downs over the past decade, the school is using its diamond anniversary as a chance for former staff, students and parents to reunite and celebrate its history.
The academy has been displaying memorabilia and photographs from across the decades in its building in South Walsham Road and on social media.
Acle Academy. Picture: Archant - Credit: Archant
A "decades-themed" day on Friday will see pupils come to school in dress from their favourite decade and experience lessons focused on important events across the school's lifetime.
Students will bury a time capsule containing letters to the future and planted a magnolia tree, and there will also be a tea party for invited guests including some of the school's first pupils.
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The school is also hosting a diamond anniversary "decades party" on Saturday - 60 years to the day since it was first opened.
The event, themed around the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, is open to anyone and there will be live music, a cash bar and food vendors.
Helen Watts, Acle Academy principal, said: "We know that experiences at school help shape the person you are to become, so we are looking forward to hearing from our special guests about how Acle helped shaped their lives and celebrating with the many people that are part of our wonderful school's history."
Daniel Thrower, chief executive of the Wensum Trust, said: "It is lovely to celebrate a school's past and very fitting that the wider school community is part of this celebration. The school has always been community focussed serving and meeting the needs of all students within a growing catchment area.
"The trust has heavily invested in the school and looks forward to playing a major part in both the school's and wider community's future years."
When it opened in 1959, Acle Secondary School was one of three new schools built in a reorganisation by the Norfolk Education Committee.
A brochure issued for its opening ceremony said it had specialist teaching rooms for arts and crafts, general and rural science, handicraft and housecraft, as well as an assembly hall with a stage and a gymnasium.
Lord Wise, a former MP for King's Lynn, was at its official opening along with Sir Alderman Sam Peel and the Very Rev Dean of Norwich.
