FORMER pupils of a Highbury primary school which will close next week have been coming back for tours to say one final goodbye – some of them more than 50 years after they left, writes Daisy Clague.

Highbury Quadrant is one of two Islington primaries being shut for good by the council this summer.

Despite fierce opposition from teachers and parents, councillors have decided there are not enough children to make the schools financially viable.

But as the last days loom, it’s not only current pupils who are mourning the school’s loss.

Former classmates – in contact via a Facebook group with more than 500 members – have returned to Highbury New Park to get one last nostalgic look.

Mario Zeppetelli, who works at the Italian social club Casa Italiana in Clerkenwell, attended Highbury Quadrant in the mid-1960s and went back for a tour last week with two classmates he hadn’t seen in years.

“It was just like stepping back in time,” he said.

“It was so eerie because some things have not changed – the sinks, the windows.

“They still have the apparatus where you pull it out and it turns into a great big climbing frame.

“The headmaster’s office hasn’t changed. We had to sit outside there waiting to be punished. In those days he used to cane us across the knuckles. There were only three of us [on the tour], but I could not believe it – one guy, he’s not changed in 55 years. It was lovely seeing those two.”

Mr Zeppetelli joked that he might “go back and get a sink” as a memento.

“Somebody’s going to rip that out – it might as well be me,” he said.

Three friends who attended Highbury Quadrant in the 1980s also went back for a final visit.

One of them, Georgina Stevens, née Makepeace, made the trip from Norwich.

She told the Tribune: “It was surreal to be back in that building, but even more surreal that it hadn’t changed. I remember the school lunches. The school cake was absolutely elite. Pink custard, amazing – it wasn’t perfect, it was lumpy but that’s part of the nostalgia. The best meat pie. School dinners in the 80s were fantastic.

“I feel very privileged to be able to go back there and see it one last time before it closes for good. It’s such a shame.”

Ms Stevens said it was emotional too, particularly doing the tour with her old classmate.

“As soon as I saw her I welled up,” she said.

You sort of expect the school will always be there, it’s part of your history.”

Pupils’ last day at Highbury Quadrant will be next Friday, and the school keys will be handed to the council before the end of this month.