Schoolchildren and parishioners will be dressing up to celebrate the 125th anniversaries of an Oxford church and a city school. A pageant will be held at St Aloysius Oratory, on Woodstock Road, on Friday to mark its birthday, writes Madeleine Pennell.

Pupils at St Aloysius First School will dress in 16th century Italian style costumes to re-enact the story of the saint their school is named after.

Aloysius, the Patron Saint of Youth, was canonised after he left his rich family to become a priest and look after plague victims in Rome.

Bible stories about the life of Jesus and the sacraments will be acted out during the evening.

Members of the congregation in Victorian garb

Some members of the congregation will be dressing up in Victorian costumes and telling the story of how the church began and its history.

Rye St Antony and St Edward's schools have loaned costumes to the church for the event.

Brother Daniel Seward, director of the pageant, said: "There will be members of the parish of all ages taking part. It should be very colourful and there will be music and costumes from different ages."

At Oxford High School for Girls, scenes of past and present are painted on a mural to celebrate its 125th anniversary.

Sixth formers have painted the picture to spruce up a dreary corner of their playground. It shows sepia-coloured scenes from school life in the past in the background and colourful images of the present in the foreground. Woodcuts showing scenes of life in the 1920s were used for the design.

Eight panels of marine plywood were painted with emulsion and then varnished to make them weatherproof.

Each of the eight pupils in the school's upper sixth A-level art class made a panel and the picture on each one flows into the next consecutive panel.

The pageant's stage manager, Rachel Rutty, said: "It is on a brick wall that is very plain and dreary. The students have wanted to do something with that corner of the playground for years and years.

They have put a computer in the foreground to show life today which is something that would not even have been thought of then. There is an aeroplane to show girls going on foreign trips."

Pupil Rachel Smith, 18, made one of the panels. She said: "You could see from the woodcuts how we have progressed.

There were pictures of girls doing drill and playing with hoops and now we have things like gymnastics and hockey.

"There were also things like going to the Ashmolean and that is something that we still do today.

"We are all very proud of them. It is a good way to mark the anniversary. It is nice for us, because we are the year that is leaving, to be able to do something that will last for years to come."