Former pupils set to descend on Bartons Arms for Great Barr Comprehensive reunion this weekend

Former pupils who attended Great Barr Comp from 1980 to 1996 will be descending on the Bartons Arms, Aston High Street, on Saturday night. 

For the last six months former pupils from across the world have been swapping stories and memories on the Reunion's Facebook page.

A list of popular hit records from the 1980s and 1990s has been compiled from artists including Bobby Brown, Vanilla Ice, Erasure, Snap, Transvision Vamp and LL Cool J.

As well as returning pupils the organisers have reached out to former teachers to attend the gathering, even those whose strict methods included screaming "you boy" at slow walking pupils,forcing children to stand outside house headmasters' offices for a week or enforcing strict uniform rules including wearing black

blazers in the blazing heat.

The headmaster throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s was Brian Sherratt OBE who kept the 1,500 plus pupils in line through a combination of fear and discipline. A Conservative Party acolyte Mr Sherratt also masterminded the comprehensive becoming a Grant Maintained school, a forerunner to the financially independent academies which now dominate the education system.

Reunion organiser Darren Stewart, who now runs Soak Bathrooms in Kingstanding, said: "If Saturday night is half as much fun as we have all had online then it will be a fantastic night. 

"The Bartons Arms is one of the Birmingham's most iconic pubs and is big enough to fit us all in. The DJ has been booked, there will be Thai food, burgers, chips and more. All we need to do all come together and reunite.  

"Let’s enjoy and also remember our school friends here and friends we have lost."

One conversation topic which will almost certainly out of bounds will be everyone's O-Level and GCSE results from decades ago.

The Aldridge Road school and sixth form, which is now called Fortis Academy, was split into four houses Warwick, Ludlow, Kenilworth and Dudley. The school sports day was so big the houses used to compete at Alexander Stadium. 

Darren added: "There will be plenty of surprises on the night, I know a few people will be arriving early to watch Aston Villa FA Cup semi-final at 5pm and the Benn v Eubank Jr fight is also being shown. 

"A lot of us can remember their dad's fighting when we were at Great Barr School, I am pretty sure there were a few re-enactments  of the fights in the playground as well pupils throwing each other around using the latest WWE wrestling moves."