John Ruskin School put on a production of Grease Lightening in 1999

Ninety eight bags of flour were bought at Asda with money collected from pupils and staff and taken in the school’s minibus to Ulverston Railway Station.

They then went by train to London and were due to be shipped out of Tilbury Docks.

SMILE: Young photographer Ben Steel, 12, displays his prizewinning photograph at the annual spring show at John Ruskin School in 1991

The Band Aid/Red Star Appeal was seen in the Radio Times by school technician Teresa Long.

“The flour is to be distributed in Africa throughout December so that, like the song, they really know it’s Christmas,” said Mrs Long.

In 1988 the Project Respond Fund of the National Westminster Bank presented a tape recorder to the team at John Ruskin School which created talking books for partially-sighted people.

Visitors headed to the annual spring show at John Ruskin School in March 1991.

While it was chilly and rainy outside, inside there was a taste of warmer times as entrants flexed their competitive muscles.

There were plenty of entries in both the pupil and adult sections for categories that invited entrants to show off their skills at art, decorative work, handiwork and cookery.

HISTORY: John Ruskin School art teacher Joanna Walton judging at the annual spring show at the school in 1991

There were also displays of work from pupils from local primary schools, reflecting aspects of work the children had been doing as part of their national curriculum.

Profits from the show went to the John Ruskin School Fund.

In 1994 a group of pupils from John Ruskin School went on an expedition to the Hebridean isle of Rhun. The group comprised Anna Helme, Laura Shepherd, Emma Matthews, David Sharp, Stephen Russell, Chris Rabane and Phillip Bottomley.

The school's production of Grease played to packed houses in 1999.

SCHOOL: Rebecca Hine as Sandy and James Thorburn as Danny in John Ruskin School’s production of Grease in 1999

The show was the idea of the school's new head of music and drama Naomi Taylor. There were about 70 in the cast, as well as backstage workers.

The school was helped by Coniston's resident theatre company Telling Tales and by former pupil Alistaire Mitchell, then one of the directors of a fabric company which supplied costume materials.