PUPILS at the first post-war primary school to be built in Leigh wound the clock back 50 years to celebrate their golden jubilee.

Staff and 186 pupils at Newton Westpark gathered in the school hall on Friday for a 50s' style party with jam and paste butties and jelly and ice cream.

It heralded two weeks of celebrations at the Tennyson Avenue school which will end on June 25 with an assembly attended by governors and parents.

Styles of the era were the order of the day with children suffering plastered down hair and tank tops, others in old fashioned uniform or rock 'n' roll outfits.

They danced to the music of the decade and played the children's games of the time -- and over the period of the celebrations will be having drill, researched by class teachers, instead of PE.

Head teacher Lynne Carroll said: "We had a great deal of fun with both parents and children getting into the swing of things.

"The children have used the occasion to research the history of their school."

Volunteer helper Mary Polesta made a big cake bearing 50 candles.

The single-storey school, which cost £40,000, was officially opened on June 12, 1954 by Sir Arthur Binns, chief education officer for Lancashire.

It became a landmark in the town's history being the first "light and airy" school in the area.

At the opening ceremony Sir Arthur said: "The best cure for vandalism, rife today, is to train children while they are young to take care of beautiful things."

He said there was no doubt that living among the best things in life had a curiously uplifting effect on them and he was quite certain they were doing the right thing in building schools which were light, airy, roomy and colourful.

The school, which was dedicated by the Rev J Hurdley of St Peter's was named Newton after the late Alderman Peter Newton, chairman of the divisional education committee, and Westpark because the school was set near Westleigh Park -- though a slag heap separated the two at the time.

The first head teacher was Mr A S N White who had a staff of five teachers.