THESE Oxford schoolchildren had spent months preparing for a junknoo. If, like me, you have never heard of the word, it is apparently the name of a carnival in the Bahamas.

Nearly 100 pupils from Bishop Kirk Middle School in North Oxford were heading to London to take part in the event at the Commonweath Institute in 1986.

They had spent three months cutting and sticking together their rainbow-coloured paper costumes and decorating them with flowers, fish, birds and fruit. They were to join 700 children from across the country for the Caribbean extravaganza.

This was the third year that Year Three teacher Cathie Holden had applied to the institute for permission for Bishop Kirk pupils to take part – and the first time she had struck lucky.

Their appearance in London followed a term in which they had studied various aspects of life in that part of the world.

Pupils had looked at the Caribbean’s oil and banana industries and the area’s geography as well as day-to-day life.

Studying the region’s Calypso-style entertainment was the lighter side of the children’s team work.

The school in Middle Way, named after Kenneth Kirk, Bishop of Oxford from 1937 to 1954, opened in 1965, but did not start too promisingly.

The 240 boys and girls started the first term two weeks late because of building work was still going on.

Costing £54,000 and designed by architect Gerald Banks, of Bicester, it was the first church school to be built in the city for many years.

The official opening in October 1966 was by the bishop’s son Peter, the MP for Saffron Walden, and attended by other members of the Kirk family.

The school suffered a serious fire in 1980 when an arsonist destroyed three of the 10 classrooms. Fire crews managed to stop the flames reaching the kitchen and science laboratory.

Classes for some pupils were held at St Edward’s School and at Westminster College at North Hinksey while temporary buildings were put up.

Pupils were back together seven weeks later, but the school would survive for only another 10 years.

A drop in the number of pupils meant that two middle schools in North Oxford could not be sustained.

Bishop Kirk closed in 1990 and united with Summertown to form the new Frideswide Middle School off Marston Ferry Road.

Since 2003, when middle schools were abolished, it has become the new lower school for Cherwell School.

* Any memories of the junknoo? Write and let me know.