LEARNERS old and new will bid a fond farewell to a Portland school.

It’s been known to the community of Portland as the Cliff School, Underhill Junior School and, most recently, the IPACA Underhill Campus, but on July 22 the school will close.

To mark the 101 years of learning at the site, there will be a celebration on Monday, July 21 from 9.15am to 11.15am.

There will be a tour, a special performance of the Goodbye Underhill song by the pupils and a presentation by Wayne Day, who was a governor at the school for 17 years.

He has collected an archive of images of the schools though the ages and will be giving a talk to the community. Visitors will have the chance to share their memories of their school days as part of a project.

Students will interview willing visitors and film them reminiscing about their time at the school. They will then edit the clips to create and produce a film that they will upload to Youtube and the school’s website Principal, Alison Appleyard, said: “We would like to invite ex-pupils, teachers, governors and all members of our community who have a connection to Underhill to join us in this celebration. We are really looking forward to sharing fond memories of the past and looking ahead to a bright future.”

Ex-Cliff School pupil and now a school governor, Lisa Kelly, fondly remembers being an inkwell monitor but is now focussed on the 21st century technology and learning throughout the academy.

Lisa said: “My education at the Cliff School was happy but it was of its time.

“I am so pleased that, as IPACA, we are now able to bring new facilities and greater opportunity to our children and community”

In September, pupils and staff who would normally attend Underhill campus will move to Osprey Quay campus and Royal Manor campus.