Our 300th Anniversary!
The founding of Holy Trinity took place on the 21st May 1725 when Captain Bolton and a group from Berwick first signed the deed to form the Berwick Charity School Trust which still operates and owns the school to this day.
Over the course of the year of 2025 and into 2026 we planned many events to mark this big occasion for our community. We had lots of help along the way and would like to thank Holy Trinity Church, Berwick Archives, our Trustees, the school's PTA, Berwick Maltings, St Hilda's Trust and the Smail Family Foundation for the support that they have given to the school.
Read on for some of the things that we have got up to!
Creative Week
We held a creative week to learn all about the history of our school. Each day focussed on a different theme and the children had a chance to investigate the history of the school.
We investigated maps and plans and found out all about our school through its 300 years.
In school each class became a different era. The children spent the day travelling through time experiencing what a lesson at Holy Trinity would be like in Georgian times, Victorian times, the War Years, the 70s, the 90s and even thought about what our school could be like in the future.
Visitors came to school playing the part of famous people from our history. Some of the visitors were ex-staff and pupils and explained all about their experiences of Holy Trinity. Others demonstrated subjects that used to be studied by the children at our school in the past.
We explored Berwick with the whole school going on a town walk to see the old sites that housed parts of our school and the places that were important to the school over the years. We visited the Charity School, the Parade, saw old playing fields at the Pier Field and Stanks, looked at our connections with the Church and thought about how our current building has changed and will change in the future.
Community Involvement
To engage the wider community, with the help of the Archives and the Church, we held public events inviting past staff and pupils to come and share their memories of our school adding to a growing collection of material to be held at the Archive Office. Our findings were shared with the public at Berwick's Heritage Open Days and walking tours of the historic sites of the school proved popular.
Commemorative Hearts
Our PTA, with support for the school's trust, enabled every child to make a commemorative ceramic heart as a memento of our anniversary. Additional hearts were made for staff, governors, trustees and all those who helped in our anniversary celebrations.
Anniversary Service and Party
On the 21st May, the day that the original trust deed was signed, we held a special service at Holy Trinity Church with our whole community as well as representatives from the Diocese, Northumberland County Council, the Civic Party and those who had helped with funding our events. We were joined by the full school and those who had involvement with the school, past and present. Our children played a big role in our service explaining what they had learned about the history of our school and showing the work that they had created during our creative week. In the afternoon our PTA supported us to hold a garden party to celebrate our big birthday! It is not everyday that you are 300!
Anniversary Tree Planting
Thank you so much to all at Holy Trinity Church who invited our School Council and Eco-Council down to the Churchyard to plant a flowering Cherry Tree to commemorate our big birthday. A carved stone plaque will be placed next to the tree as a permanent reminder of our 300th year! Thank you to all who made this possible for us.
In February, our School Council, Eco-Council, and Worship Council returned to Holy Trinity for the unveiling of our special 300th anniversary commemorative plaque, placed proudly beside the tree we planted earlier this year. We also visited Flagstaff Park, where the children helped plant two additional oak trees with the NCC Parks Team to further mark our big birthday celebration. A huge thankâyou to everyone who helped make these wonderful events possible!
Anniversary Drama Project
Year 4 have had a great week working with Oli from Tortive Theatre creating performances based on our long history. Oli worked with the class for three days.
