FORMER pupils and teachers can go back to school for one last time before the building is demolished.

The Harlow Centre in Marston, which has served as a school for more than 60 years, will be reduced to rubble and rebuilt as part of the Swan School plans.

It is currently home to Meadowbrook College, but the building started life as Old Marston Secondary School before becoming The Harlow School and then Marston Middle School.

Meadowbrook, an alternative provision academy, is set to hold an open day so people can say goodbye to the building.

Its headteacher Nicola Partridge said: "Several former pupils and teachers of the Harlow and Marston Middle schools have contacted us to see if they can have a last look around and take photographs, before the new Swan School is built.

"The school holds special memories for lots of people so we thought it would be nice to hold an open afternoon to give everyone the chance to come and have a last look."

The open afternoon will be held at Meadowbrook, in Raymund Road, from midday until 2pm on Saturday, March 30.

Anyone who would like to attend, or who has any old photographs or articles that could be displayed on the day, is asked to contact rkempson@meadowbrookcollege.org.

Meadowbrook formed in 2002 and teaches pupils who have been or are at risk of exclusion.

The academy, which also has bases in Banbury, Kidlington and Abingdon, takes children aged five-16 and provides full-time and part-time education.

Its Oxford base, off Marston Ferry Road, is due to rebuilt on the same site and will share the land with the River Learning Trust's new 1,260-pupil secondary school, the Swan School.

The building opened as Old Marston Secondary School in 1957 and eventually became Marston Middle School, which closed in August 2003.

The Oxford Mail has discovered articles from its archives about the fight to save the building from closure, particularly when it was the Harlow School.

One article, published in 1978, pictures a pupil called Louise Lamburn who wrote to the Queen expressing her dismay at the potential closure.

The youngster told the paper at the time: "It's great. I love my school very much and I'm so glad it's staying open."