PUPILS at Bury Grammar School celebrated 60 years of their Cologne exchange.

More than 100 guests welcomed back former pupils, who had taken part in the very first exchange with Cologne students in 1955.

Old Boys and Old Girls, current pupils, parents and special guests from Cologne enjoyed watching a 5-a-side football match between the BGS Old Boys Association Football Club and their current first team, followed by afternoon tea and presentations in the new sixth form centre in Bridge Road, on November 8.

The school’s Cologne exchange was initiated by Dr Arnold Meier, a German Jew, whose family left Germany in the 1930s.

Louise Alford, assistant head of development at BGS, said: “Dr Meier was a wise, benign and modest gentleman and would have been quietly proud that the exchange is still an annual event and a key feature of our language learning programme.

“It continues to offer a unique opportunity to boys and girls of both countries to spend some time in another culture and improve their language skills, and the value of this cannot be overstated.

“We were pleased to welcome Dr Meier’s son, BGS Old Boy Jonathan Meier who made a wonderful speech about what the exchange had meant to his father and also presented the traditional Baumsteiger Trophy to a representative from the Deutzer Gymnasium, the 2015 winners of the annual BGS versus Cologne football match.”

Dr Meier took up the position of head of modern languages at BGS and, after the war, felt the need to do something to try to repair the fractured relationship between Germany and Great Britain so started the exchange.