Stage productions were a regular and popular feature of life at Wheatley Secondary School.

Rita Colwell, of Shakespeare Road, Eynsham, reminded us of one when she sent in a picture of pupils taking part in a school play (Memory Lane, July 24).

Now former teacher Jeffery Babb has supplied pictures and programmes from other performances.

The aim was to give as many children as possible, irrespective of talent, the chance of being involved in the shows.

In the fourth annual show in 1955, for example, more than 200 of the 330 children at the school took part.

The show that year consisted of two mimes, a comedy, a play and two performances by the first and second year choirs. The fifth show in 1956 featured The Bells, a drama by Leopold Lewis, performed by the upper school, The Mock Doctor, by Moliere, with pupils from the middle school, and an Old Time Music Hall show.

The early shows were directed by teacher Gerald Gould and when he left in 1958 to join the staff at Lord Williams's Grammar School at Thame, his successor continued the tradition.

The ambitious 1958 production of The Beggar's Opera, which ran for two nights, received praise from Frank Dibb, The Oxford Times' drama critic.

He wrote: "Amateur dramatic organisations deserve the warmest commendation when they are as enterprising as Wheatley Secondary School which presented The Beggar's Opera in the school hall.

"This was a very bold undertaking and the volume of sheer hard work demanded from Mrs S Robinson, the producer, and Jeffery Babb, the musical director and conductor, to achieve what we saw on the stage was, I assure them, thoroughly appreciated by all who know what such a production involves.

"Mrs Robinson achieved a commendably good standard of acting from her cast and used the large Wheatley stage to good effect for many visually impressive groups, which were brightly enhanced by the Art Department's settings."

* Any memories of stage productions at Wheatley Secondary School? Let me know.