CHILDREN dressed up as characters from history to celebrate their school’s 40th anniversary.

Old Basing Infant School, in Milkingpen Lane, opened on January 9, 1973. Headteacher Tracey McCarley said: “There has been a school in the village since the beginning of the 19th century. It started off in the church, and St Mary’s Junior School was built in the 19th century.

“In the early 1970s, it was decided that the school wasn’t big enough, and that’s when the infant school was opened.”

There were 128 children when the school first opened, and now there are 270. Children have been learning about how the village of Old Basing has changed over the last 40 years since their school opened, and about what it was like before then.

For the anniversary celebrations, pupils came to school dressed as characters from the past, including Queen Victoria, Henry VII, Egyptians, and famous astronauts, and stood on an historical timeline indicating when they were alive.

Mrs McCarley said: “The week focused on history as part of the curriculum. We did research around historical characters and looked at how Old Basing has grown and changed in a short period of time. To the children, 40 years is a long time.”