CHILDREN across the Furness are bound to be getting excited as Christmas approaches.

Back in 1997, The Mail reported that Santa would have to make sure he had plenty of computers in his sleigh when he visited Barrow that Christmas, if the children of Roose School were anything to go by.

The Mail: DECORATE: Year three pupils Nina and Josh in December 1997DECORATE: Year three pupils Nina and Josh in December 1997

Playstations seemed to be at the top of many pupils’ lists of what they would like for Christmas, with one of the most popular games going by the distinctly unseasonal title of Demotion Derby. Others were hoping for more traditional gifts of bikes, while plenty more were still unsure about what they would be waking up to on Christmas morning.

Four-year-old Adam Green, from the school’s reception class, was in no doubt about what he wanted to find in his stocking, though.

“I want a dog Tamagotchi,” he said “My alien one’s broken because I reset it and reset it and reset it. My duck one’s good but the buttons don’t work now.”

His friend Jack Budgeon, five, said he had made a list at his cousin’s house a few days before with Lego and clothes on it.

Six-year-old Christopher Moorby had firm ideas about what he was hoping for on Christmas morning. “I want a bike,” he said.

Year three pupil Josh Runton was also hoping for a new bike, while his classmate Nina Wlodarzark was hoping for a guitar. Nine-year-old Kim Crossfield had put Spice Girls and M People CDs on her hoped-for presents list.

Teachers at Roose had been getting children of all ages involved in making traditional Christmas items like advent calendars, decorations and Christmas cards, while older pupils had completed a project looking at Christmas traditions in other European countries.

The highlight of the festive season at the school came with its nativity play, The Grumpy Sheep, which year two pupils Danielle Gabbert and Christopher Moorby talked about enthusiastically.

Pupils also went carol singing in the streets around the school, as headteacher David Fellows had reminded the children that they should remember people less fortunate than themselves.

Also in 1997 many pupils at Roose passed their cycling proficiency tests at the school.

In 1996 The Mail reported that pupils conducted a survey to check how many house martins there were in the surrounding streets.