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Waunfawr Primary has celebrated its 125th anniversary with an interactive ‘live museum’ tour, involving all 180 pupils at the school.

The school, which first opened its doors in Crosskeys in 1898, celebrated 120 years by exploring the Victorian era.

This time around however, head teacher Melissa Armishaw set her students the ambitious task of taking visitors through the decades, with a series of plays, songs, and fun facts.

Mrs Armishaw invited members of the community, former pupils, and Caerphilly Observer along to the celebrations on Friday November 17.

The tour began in the swinging-sixties, where some timeless dance moves were on display, and two pupils dressed up as BBC News presenters to ‘break’ some of the big stories of the decade, including England’s historic World Cup win in 1966, and the United States putting a man on the moon in 1969.

The group of visitors, which included former school councillors, were then ushered through to the next classroom, that would reflect the 1970s.

A play was performed by a few of the pupils, who acted out what a typical household might have looked like at the time, as classic toys such as a Rubix Cube were dusted off.

Moving through time to the 80s, guests were treated to a Top of the Pops performance, where hits such as Eye of the Tiger and Thriller were sang and choreographed brilliantly. Then everyone – including the audience – was encouraged to form a conga line.

Music was also the theme in the next class, with the kids dressed up in a rainbow of colours to sing Elton John’s classic I Just Can’t Wait to Be King from Lion King in true 90s style.

It was clear that a lot of work had gone into the celebrations. Mrs Armishaw told Caerphilly Observer that pupils spent the last two weeks preparing for the production, which would be shown to more than 150 people across two days.

Onto the turn of the millennium, and the pupils accurately acted out some of the concerns people had over the ‘Millennium Bug’.

A fairly uncoordinated Cha-Cha Slide was then danced to chuckles from the audience, before Mrs Armishaw, who has been head of the school for five years, showed the group a new ‘community room’, which had been funded through a 20th Century Schools grant.

She said: “There’s not much left in the area anymore with a host of hubs and pubs shutting their doors, we’d encourage anyone, or any group, to get in touch about using the space.”

Into the final room on the hour-long tour, the guests were met by nursery and reception pupils, who sang their hearts out to classic nursery rhymes.

After the tour, the group made their way into the main hall, where Risca History Museum was set-up, providing information about a range of items linked to the area over the years.

Speaking after the tour, Mrs Armishaw said: “It’s been great to see everyone here for our celebrations. We set up a Facebook group to invite people along from the past, staff and pupils, and I think everybody’s enjoyed themselves.

“We haven’t got a great deal of space here at the school, so we’ve worked it in a way that’s utilised that as best we could.”

MP for Islywn, and set to stand as Caerphilly MP at the next general election, Chris Evans, was also in attendance for the tour. Speaking to Caerphilly Observer he said: “I thought it was fantastic. You don’t realise how fast time passes.”

“This is a great school in a great community”, he added.