Was yours a Sydenham Community School family? Come celebrate the school's 50th birthday on Saturday, May 20 from 1 to 5. Come and go as you are able to see your former teachers and classmates and walk the halls one more time.

Opened in the year of Canada's 100th birthday, Sydenham School amalgamated 16 one-room Grey County schools in the surrounding townships. SS 13 in Leith,  SS 5 in Sydenham Bothwell's Corners and SS 4 Sydenham Briar Hill were among the local schools whose students began to come to town for elementary school. Some of those school buildings are gone; others have been converted to private homes and the noisy schoolyards are quiet gardens.

Grey County School Board's French immersion program found a home at the school, and the name changed to Ecole Sydenham Community School.

In 1992, to celebrate Sydenham's 25th anniversary and the opening of a new addition, classes contributed items to a time capsule.  At a big assembly the items were placed in a big white pail and ceremoniously buried under the flag pole in the green space in front of the school.  While the 50th anniversary might have seemed the logical occasion to open the capsule, it is now deep beneath the asphalt of the staff parking lot.

There are families well-known in the townships - Davenports, Rutherfords, Lipsetts and more - who have had three or even four generations attending Sydenham School.  The former teachers who have put together the memorabilia, slide show, and decade walls hope families will come together to enjoy the memories.

The school will close in June and the students will move down the street this fall to join students from other local elementary schools.  That occasion will be marked by a special event hosted by the parents' group.