50-year old Time Capsule discovery finds amazing community school teacher link
50-year old Time Capsule discovery finds amazing community school teacher link
By Lewis and Kaitlyn, both aged 14, Jill Dando News
A former student of a community school found a historic time capsule in her new home – then incredibly discovered it to have been buried by a current teacher 50 years ago.
Charlotte moved into her dream new home with her husband and baby near to her former school, Worle Community School Academy in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, just before Christmas.
During remodelling of the main lounge, they discovered a tin ‘Time Capsule’ behind a brick that was placed there in 1971.
Charlotte’s father Mark Antoine, who is the Chief Operations Officer at The Priory Learning Trust and former Business Manager at WCSA, recognised the photo as current long-serving WCSA maths teacher Laura John when she lived in the house as a young girl.
Laura’s family Time Capsule contained mementos and family photos.
There was also a pristine copy of a Freemans mail order catalogue from the same era and other items.
They have recently all met together back at WCSA to discuss the Time Capsule with each other, to look at the historic items from the 1970s, and to be interviewed by Jill Dando News reporters.
Laura said: “It was so wonderful to see these old items that we had put there so long ago. WCSA is such a wonderful community school it brought back so many memories of the school from the 1970s.”
Jill Dando Reporter Lewis, 14, said: “Our teacher Mrs John’s favourite part was being able to see the lights on and knowing there is another happy family enjoying her home as much as she did when she was growing up.
“It is so heartwarming to be reunited with her time capsule and knowing that such a lovely lady will be enjoying the house from now onwards.”
WCSA is an incredible community school. Even Mrs John’s own mother worked at WCSA before retiring.
Mr Antoine said: “I recognised Laura instantly and realised that this must have been her family home.”
Jill Dando was a former student of WCSA in the 1970s before becoming Britain’s best TV journalists. Now over 100 reporters across TPLT and other schools find good news in her memory.