1950s school friends reunite

PAST pupils who attended a school in Brent in the 1950s and 60s have travelled from around the world to celebrate a reunion, writes Kate Ferguson. Students from Aylestone Community School, which merged with two neighbouring schools in the 1980s to become

PAST pupils who attended a school in Brent in the 1950s and 60s have travelled from around the world to celebrate a reunion, writes Kate Ferguson.

Students from Aylestone Community School, which merged with two neighbouring schools in the 1980s to become Queen's Park Community School, gathered at their old school, in Aylestone Avenue in Brondesbury to reminisce about old times.

Guest of honour was reserved for the once much feared 1956 punishment book, a log which details every punishment dished out to students, and the teacher who ordered it, for several years.

Aubrey Muchamore was head boy at Aylestone from 1966 to 1968, and after a brief spell away from the school attending teacher training college, he returned to sample life on the other side of the classroom - as a teacher.

Mr Muchamore said: "I have so many wonderful memories of the school. Although some of them are more indelible than fond - like the punishments.

"I remember in November 1963 I had a rather nasty Christmas present. The school had been watching a film and one boy thought it would be funny to throw a ball of paper in front of the projector.

"No one would own up and all 14 of us sitting there were frogmarched to the headmaster's office where we each received four strokes of the cane."

Ed Nitkerson, 64, who lives in South Toronto in Canada, said he was inspired to organise the reunion when he visited Queen's Park on a trip to England in 2008.

"Seeing my old classmates again and to walk through the old classrooms as we worked in before is just spectacular.

"It is fantastic to see the old punishment book: 'Talking in Assembly - two strokes.' It is funny to see yourself in print being punished for doing pretty innocuous stuff.