Westover Primary School in Portsmouth has celebrated its 90th anniversary

Westover primary School, Portsmouth, turned 90 years old on September 22, after opening back in 1932 as an infant school.

The school, which is now a primary school to 220 children, put on a birthday bash to celebrate the milestone when it opened its doors to visitors who were allowed to walk around the school and reminisce about their memories.

The school children were taken out into the playground in the afternoon, where they sang songs, one of which being ‘Westover is 90’, which saw the school work with Portsmouth Music Hub to create.

The Lord Mayor, Hugh Mason, and the Lady Mayoress, Marie Costa, were in attendance, alongside representatives from Hamwic Education Trust, who gave speeches about the school’s lifetime over the years.

Once children were reunited with parents, the school was opened up to everyone to have a look at artwork and poetry the children have done for the anniversary, as well as memorabilia from the school.

Ruth Worswick, headteacher, said: ‘It was heaving and humming, you know when you start something up and it is not an RSVP, but just a drop-in, you don’t expect it to be so busy.

‘A lot of people were interested in seeing original pieces of school history, and look around the work that the children had created. It was a really lovely family and community event.’

The headteacher said that she spent most of the afternoon welcoming guests into the school and she spoke to one visitor who has had five generations of their family go through the school since the 1940s.

Ruth said: ‘This is a real family school, and it is lovely to see people wanting to come and visit us.’

The school had tea rooms on offer to the public, a celebratory cake, which was shared out and all of the children got a cupcake to take home, which were donated to the school by Tesco.

One visitor said: ‘I was very fortunate to meet up with two of my classmates, which was a lovely surprise.’