GOLDEN years at Wiveliscombe's Kingsmead Community School are being celebrated next month.

Past and present staff, pupils, parents and governors will be in Wiveliscombe to mark 50 years of education at the site, on Saturday November 15.

And a book of memories is being compiled by former headteacher, Brian Collingridge, ready to go on sale at the reunion.

He is using the school records - including the logbooks he kept during his 23-year tenure - to produce the definitive history of the school, which started life as Wiveliscombe Secondary Modern in 1953.

Built for 240 pupils, the school opened with 300 children on a site littered with reminders of the American forces who were its previous occupants.

Mr Collingridge hopes the book will provide an "accurate and fair reflection" of the way Kingsmead has developed from humble beginnings to a specialist language college with award-winning exam results.

The celebration day in November will feature a number of events, starting with a church service at St Andrew's at 11am.

That will be followed by an open afternoon at the school from noon to 2.30pm.

Members of the public will be able to look around the school and take a stroll down memory lane with the help of large photographic displays, pieces of work and lots of familiar faces.

The School Society will be providing tea and cakes for former classmates to sit down and enjoy their reunions in comfort.

And some of Kingsmead's first pupils who remember the opening of the School back in November 1953 will be at the event.

The day will finish with a party in the evening at the school with food, a band and disco as well as a quiet area to talk and reminisce.

Tickets are £7.50 and they can be obtained through the school office, local post offices or by calling 01984-623483.