OLD school photos don't come much better than this. Taken in 1948, it shows the children of the Bar Convent Preparatory School in 1948. There are more than 100 children in the photograph, together with five teachers - among them, in the centre, nuns Sister Fidelis and Sister Therese.

Another teacher at the school in those days was a young Miss Leedal. You can see her in the photograph just to the left of the two nuns. A couple of years later, Miss Leedal herself joined the community of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, becoming Sister Margaret. She is still a member of the Bar Convent community to this day, and vividly remembers her days as a teacher.

Brought up in Bradford, she had trained as a teacher in Hull before coming to the prep school.

"I loved it!" she says. "They were children who were very keen to learn. It was a fee-paying school, so the parents were keen, and that had an effect on the children. It was a delight to teach there."

Most of the children were local, although a few came from further afield - including a few from army families. There were also some Polish children, whose families had come to the UK during or after the war. There was a Polish resettlement camp at East Moor north of York, Sister Margaret recalls. The Polish parents were desperate for their children to get a good education. "I remember that the fathers would come on the first day of term with wads of notes in their pockets to pay the fees."

At the time the photograph was taken, there were about 120 children at the school, Sister Margaret believes - mainly girls up to the age of 11, but also a few boys aged up to 7. They were all day pupils - there were no boarders at the prep school, although the Bar Convent Grammar School (where All Saints now is) did have a few weekly boarders.

The prep school closed down at about the same time as the school reorganisation in York which saw the end of grammar and secondary modern schools and the beginning of comprehensives.

Sister Margaret brought us the photograph after she saw some of the other old school photographs that we have carried in Yesterday Once More.

"It has been one of our treasures for many years," she says. "When I saw you were doing a series of schools, I thought 'I must bring out that old photo'."

The photograph was taken at the bottom of the school garden: some All Saints pupils today might be able to recognise the background. When stretched out to its full length, the photograph is more than two feet wide. So it is hard to do it full justice here, even spread across two pages. But we hope you can make out most of the children pictured. If you were a pupil at the school, you may even recognise some of the faces - or even spot yourself here. If so, we'd love to hear from you. Any excuse to be able to use this wonderful photo again...