By Tracey Rumsby
On Friday July 20th 2018 Alderman Swindell Primary School closed with a ceremony held in the front playground on Beresford Road.
Miss Hopley used photographs from the opening ceremony in 1929 to give the school a send off that Alderman Swindell himself would have been proud of.
With the Mayor of Great Yarmouth and her consort, complete with full Mayoral Regalia, in attendance. A flag, with the school logo (The Swindell Bee) on one side and the Union Flag on the other, was flying high above the school gates, where many generations of North Great Yarmouth families have passed through during the almost 90 years of the existence of the school.
The ceremony began with a few words from Miss Hopley who introduced the Mayor, Councillor Mary Coleman, who read her speech. This was followed by the children singing.
The children in Year 1 and 2, Owl and Raven Classes, then performed a traditional Maypole Dance as seen in one of the early photographs that has been displayed in the entrance to the school for many years. Another song followed.
Mike Smith-Clare, school governor, gave a speech encouraging and reminding everyone to keep Alderman Swindell Primary School in their memories and their hearts.
Then the playground fell silent as, school governor, Joel Heys, played the song "Sunset" on the bugle and Miss Hopley slowly lowered and folded the flag.
The drummers that have preciously performed in the Carnival Procession in Great Yarmouth on Saturday 9th June 2018 and the Lord Mayor's Procession in Norwich on Saturday 7th July 2018 played some of the rhythms that they have learned.
The Mayor finished by unveiling a tile mosaic at the entrance to the school, made with tiles decorated by the staff and pupils, and the drummers marched by and round to the side entrance to the school on Keyes Avenue.