IT was both the end of an era and the start of an exciting future for Langdown Infant and Junior schools when they joined together for a special assembly.

They met as separate schools in Hythe for the final time on the last day of term before the Christmas holidays.

When lessons start again in January, Langdown Infant and Junior will be no more - instead they have merged to form the £1.4m Waterside Primary School as part of a Hampshire County Council reorganisation to cut more than 600 surplus primary school places in the area.

About 200 pupils gathered with staff and parents for the candle-lit Christingle assembly at the infant school in Lytton Road.

"It was a day of mixed emotions," said Caroline Walker, Langdown infant head teacher and the deputy head at the new school. "It's the end of an era for both sites but it's good to look forward to a new start in the new year of a new school. The children reflected on both the meaning of Christingle and what it meant to be the last day of their school."

Colin Stevens, acting head at Langdown Junior, will be the headteacher at the new school.

He said: "It was a wonderful opportunity to bring the two schools together as separate schools but we also had the chance to bring them together as the new primary school."

Both Langdown Infant and Langdown Junior School opened in 1956 to serve the growing population of Hythe.

The two schools will continue to operate on separate sites until extension and refurbishment work is completed at the junior school site in Ashford Crescent. It is expected to finish in 2006.

The purpose-built accommodation will provide the primary school with music and drama facilities, a food technology area and craft, design and technology space as well as the replacement of the pre-school provision on the infant school site.