This year the school celebrated its 21st year with a special Gala Day

The sun shone (and kept on shining), the sirens wailed, the majorettes paraded, the sponges flew, the bands played and the people just kept on arriving.

The Anlaby Acre Heads 21st Birthday Gala was a great success. The organisers could not have got better
weather for it and had not expected the almost 1000 people who turned up on Saturday 12th July to join in
the celebrations of the school's 21st anniversary. And all those visitors had plenty to see, do, eat and win!

The event got off to a great start as Maureen Arnold, a member of staff on the first day of the school and still
a midday supervisor now, cut the tape to declare the gala open. There were stalls galore around the school field, selling everything from school pencils to beeswax candles. There were activities for the children like face painting and the ever-popular bouncy castles, although the one which seemed to generate the most excitement was the chance to throw sponges at Mr.Bennett!

It was great to see members of the school staff, some who had moved on to pastures new, ex-pupils who had
moved into the world of work or who were still busy at their secondary schools and so many parents, of
pupils both past and present.

Other highlights included the excellent tombola and refreshments inside, the treasure hunt, white elephant,
cake and pocket money toy stalls, the helium balloons, guess the weight of the 21st birthday cake, a model
train set, 21 years of Acre Heads display, Hook a Duck and too many other things to mention! A constant
stream of visitors meant that many of the stalls were very busy all the time!

Music was provided in two very different styles. Firstly from the excellent rock group 'Tonik', whose two sets
of classic rock songs were extremely well received and showed off the talent of a group of ex-pupils who could
go far in the world of music. They were followed by the quieter style of the school's own Generation Gap,
led by Mrs.Stubbs and Mrs.Fowler, whose songwriting and arranging talents were well complemented by the vocal talents of the pupils who make up the rest of the group. Once more Mr.Bennett accompanied the group, using Tonik's drum kit. The Anlaby troupe of majorettes also attracted crowds with their two performances of routines and rousing music.

Just when it seemed that things were beginning to wind down, the fire brigade arrived in grand scale and
with one blast of their siren became inundated with children wanting to act as 'Fireman Sam' or be a member
of 'Blue Watch' for a minute or two.

Security is always an issue and that was contributed to by the presence of Ann Holland, a special constable,
who patrolled the grounds throughout the afternoon. Her colleagues in the Police Land Rover spent their
time entertaining and informing people.

The stalls in the hall had a particularly busy afternoon!

It appeared that there were a number of very serious accidents during the afternoon and many children were
seen wandering round with bleeding wounds and black eyes. A closer look showed these to be fake! The
St.John's Ambulance display had provided special make-up effects which were perhaps too realistic!

The whole event was organised by the Friends of Acre Heads under the leadership particularly of Lynn
Cawood and Karen Pamplin, whose superb efforts ensured the success of the event. There were so many
other people involved in so many ways it is impossible to list them, but all played their part in making the
event so enjoyable.

As with many of these events the clearing up saw lots of people 'mucking in' and the school field looked very
bare (and tidy!) at half past five.

This was a celebration, on a grand scale, of a great school and all the people, adults and children, who are associated with it now and have been in the past.

The only question at the end of the day was...How can we possibly follow that?