Suzi Perry joins hundreds going back to Smestow School for reunion

Suzi was joined by machete attack heroine Lisa Potts at the reunion, along with 11 of the 24 students who first made the journey from entry class to upper sixth. Most had not seen each other since the day they left 43 years ago, but that didn't stop some driving more than 100 miles for the event.

Afterwards, Suzi, the 44-year-old Formula One presenter, tweeted about her experience and even included an old school picture.

Stella Gratrix, now aged 60 and living in Llanidloes in mid Wales, also attended.

She said old school pals had reminisced and had their memory jogged by boards packed with pictures from the past.

She said: "The last time I saw the majority of my classmates was 1971 when most of us left but we just picked up from where we left off. We all got on well together at school. We gelled as a group and the decades that have passed since then have obviously not affected that. They were great times."

Peter Titley, 61 and an HR manager living in Tettenhall, also took a trip down memory lane.

He said: "It is just like being back in the classroom together. It was a great opportunity to see how and how the school and my fellow classmates were looking after all these years."

Phil Thomas, 60, and living in Compton married Carol from the year below while Howard Davies, also 60 and a retired teacher, went one better with his his wife Kath being in the same form. They started on the same day in September 1965 but did not decide to tie the knot until after a chance meeting in a pub in 1978. Now a mother of four with two grandchildren, she said: "It has been marvellous to meet up with our pals again after such a long time. There is so much to see and talk about."

Present day pupils took the visitors - who arrived in batches covering three eras - for a walk along corridors and through classrooms that recently had a £10.8 million facelift.

Richard Green, a 60-year-old retired works and technical director from Muxton, Shropshire, who also started at the school in 1965 and was a member of the committee that organised the event, said afterwards: "The number of those who took the trouble to attend took our breath away. We would have been happy if a third of that had turned up. It exceeded our wildest expectations and just blew us all away."

Primary school machete attack heroine Lisa Potts - now qualified as a community nurse and working as a health visitor - was another former pupil to attend. She left Smestow in 1991 and admitted: "I have great memories of the place. They were some of the best days of my life."

Were you at the event? Share your memories in the comments below.

Father-of-three Robert Strothers, 57, from Wightwick whose wife Jane was in the same class as him at the school enjoyed his time there so much, he sent his two sons Alex and Russell to follow in his footsteps.

Present Smestow headteacher Martyn Morgan said: "It was never our intention to mark our 50th anniversary with people sitting down and listening to speeches. We wanted a structure where people could reminisce. I knew that had been the right thing to do when I saw two women hugging after not seeing each other since the day they left school but there is no way I saw the idea taking off like this.

"All these people came back because they enjoyed their time here. That is a wonderful thing. I have only been headteacher for 20 years but it makes me very proud of the school and all it has done for pupils since it opened."