What a wonderful celebration of 50 years of Wootey Learning was enjoyed by all on Saturday 15th September. As well as celebrating our 50th Anniversary, the school community enjoyed the grand opening of Wootey Junior School's new building by Yvette Cooper MP. Yvette is a past pupil of Wootey Infant and Junior Schools and spoke fondly of her time at the school and the importance of our wonderful Wootey offer for the whole community. Mrs Ella Palmer, Wootey Infant School's Headteacher opened the day with the following speech.

"Welcome everybody, Tim, Wootey Junior School's Headteacher and I would like to thank you for coming to celebrate with us today. We extend a very warm welcome also to Yvette Cooper MP, Mr Mayor, Cllrs, staff past and present, Governors and most importantly our children and families past, present and future.

At a cost of £80,000 Wootey Farm County Primary School opened on this site 50 years ago, in 1968, initially with 115 pupils. As the new Wootey estate grew in population, the planned opening of a second school established a dedicated Wootey Infant School and a dedicated Wootey Junior school here in 1972.

Over those 50 years since 1968 approximately 3,000 pupils have bounced in through the Infant School doors as rising fives, moved, a little taller, up the hill when they were 7 years and emerged as bright, happy 11 year olds through the Junior school doors 7 years after starting. These 3,000 pupils over 50 years equals about 21,000 individual school years of Wonderful Wootey learning!

Wootey gets under your skin. There is Wootey magic. The warm Wootey feeling which was described to me by my predecessor Ros Illsley when I first visited is probably why we enjoy several generations of the same family attending our schools.

It is probably why there have been so few changes of HT over the 50 years (and we are delighted to welcome several returning today).

Moving from joint beginnings as a small Primary School, our two schools have always worked closely through for example, a hard working joint PTA, with the classes in each school having a linked buddy class in the opposite school, INSET days on the same day to support families and to enable close staff liaison.

As we now enter the next era for Wootey, captured on our new campus signs with the strapline ‘Together we grow the wonder of learning’ we would love you to take time to visit the whole Wootey Campus today, explore inside and visit the wonderful grounds (not least as the bouncy obstacle course is on the field at the back) bring back memories from the past and start to create new ones for the next 50 years!