On 15th October, pupils who had left Mary Hare in 1961 came back to see what had changed.  Melinda Napier was one of them:

"It was a roaring success as we all loved and enjoyed the tour tremendously. Please give our thanks to Brian Lee and Robin Askew for giving up their free time and showing us round.  My group had Robin Askew so please convey our thanks to him for his patience as the tour took 2 hours! We had given a donation to Robin for the school fund to show our appreciation.

Some of us had not been back to school since leaving over 40 years ago and they just couldn't believe their eyes how much the school had changed! From just Arlington Manor and Mansell House to several buildings.  When we first started, Mansell House was being built - that was in 1961 and the boys were the first to "live" in Mansell House in the following year!   Now we have Year 6 and Year 11-12 having their own accommodation!  Although for a few of us, we had been back to school a several times because we had children/sister/niece/nephews at school, we still find something new whenever we visited."

Others who came on the tour said:

"It was lovely touring around school as it brought back my memories."

"I found the tour of the school all quite nostalgic and I'm sure others did too.  It's unbelievable that it's half a century since we started at MHGS." 

"It was so exciting re-visiting our old classrooms, bedrooms and many other rooms!  Unbelievable how much they have changed - we had 8 iron framed beds in the dormitories and now they have 3 or 4 comfortable beds in their bedrooms!  Some of the desks in the classrooms were still the same ...or is my memory playing tricks with me?!"