ONE of Bradford’s biggest secondary schools is today celebrating its 60th anniversary, and has invited pupils from all six decades to take part in the celebrations.

Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College is marking the diamond anniversary of a school opening on the site by creating a timeline mural in the school’s reception, featuring over 200 photographs of pupils and the building’s various incarnations.

It will be unveiled by Lord Mayor of Bradford Councillor Geoff Reid at an event tonight attended by current and former pupils, who have come from across the country to help mark the occasion.

There will also be a tour of the school - the latest incarnation was opened in 2008, and many of the guests will have not been in the new building.

Buttershaw Secondary School opened in September 1956 at a time when Buttershaw was rapidly expanding from a few houses to the major residential area it is today, partly due to the post war “baby boom.”

The school got a new name, Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College to go with the new building, and earlier this year it entered another stage of its history when it became an academy, part of the Bradford Diocesan Academies Trust.

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Another event, held on Saturday night, has been organised by former pupil Adrian Hartshorn, who was one of the school’s first pupils. Former pupils have been invited to the Guide Post Hotel in Low Moor for the reunion celebration.

Notable former pupils include author and screenwriter Trish Cooke, Andrew Dunbar, writer of Rita, Sue and Bob too, and David Kershaw, a former advisor to Tony Blair and director of West Midlands Academy Trust, who was the school’s first head boy.

Head Richard Hughes said: “Becoming an academy is another part of the school’s journey.

“There will be a couple of short, formal speeches at the event and then we’ll be showing former pupils around the school. When we contacted some of them the didn’t even realise we were in a new building.

“We have people coming from all over the country.

“The school was built as part of the Buttershaw development so the school and the community are linked by their history, and by the fact that the overwhelming majority of children from Buttershaw still come to the school.

“With increased parental choice a lot of schools are a bit isolated and don’t serve their local communities, but most of our pupils are from the surrounding areas.”

Former pupils will talk to current pupils about their successes during their visit.