Former pupils at a Bradford on Avon secondary school have been reunited after 23 years.

About 80 former St Laurence School students who had left the school in 1986 or after sixth form in 1988 met again at The Mill at Rode, near Trowbridge, on Friday. One had travelled all the way from Australia to be there.

Organiser Vicky Rees, now Douglas, 38, of Rode, said: “It was brilliant, really good and the turnout was much better than we expected.

“Everyone was chatting away and I was trying to get around to talk to everyone.

“There was lots of laughing and shouting and giggling, a bit like when we were at school really.”

Ms Rees went with her partner to his school reunion at Frome College earlier this year and thought it was such a good idea that she and her friend Jo Harvey decided to organise one for their school.

They relied on social networking site Facebook to get in touch with many of their former schoolmates and even set up a ‘reunion event’ group for former students to join.

Kirsty Scapleton, now Reynolds, travelled from Australia, and Ms Rees said: “It was great to see Kirsty.

“Nothing had changed. Everyone was exactly the same and it is strange how we hadn’t seen these people for 20-odd years but the conversation hasn’t changed.”

The party was based around an 1980s disco.

Co-organiser Jo Harvey, now Horwood, 39, from Bath, said: “It was fantastic. It was a really good turnout. You take a chance with this kind of thing, don’t you, but I think it worked well. There were lots of screams and people saying ‘oh my God’.”