WITH this year marking the 60th anniversary of the opening of Dyson Perrins School, the Malvern Gazette takes a look inside the school archives and uncovers a selection of photos showing school life in its earlier years.

The school's origins date back to 1937, when a Church of England senior school for Malvern was was proposed and approved.

Land belonging to Yates Hay Farm was identified as a suitable place to build it, but the Second World War brought progress to a halt.

Following the end of the war, the land was acquired, with the name of the school proposed to be the Lyttelton School.

But after noted philanthropist C W Dyson Perrins contributed the then-large sum of £6,000 to the school fund in 1949, it was decided to name the school after him. He was to contribute another £4,000 six years later.

In 1956, Mr Dyson Perrins laid the school's foundation stone at the age of 92. He was not to live long enough to see it completed.

The school opened on September 11, 1958, with 145 pupils and five teacher, including the head, Mr S Bormond.

Over the years, the school was to expand many times, both in pupil number and in physical size, and by 1982 had 1.289 students on its roll.

In 1989, the school provided a temporary home for Cowleigh CE Primary School, after the school building had been destroyed by fire.

And the school's expansion continued through to 1990s and 2000s, with the building of the community sports centre, a new block for the sixth-form, IT and performing arts, new extensions to the reception area and canteen and new facilities for special needs teaching.

In 2007, a former student attained one of the highest offices in the land when Jacqui Smith was appointed home secretary in the government of Gordon Brown.