It was a day full of colour for students and teachers at Anagh Coar Primary School who celebrated the NHS’s 72nd birthday.

The Douglas school celebrated the anniversary this month by dressing up, decorating stones and making biscuits using all of the colours of the rainbow as part of its special Rainbow Day event.

The celebrations started with all classes sharing the book ’Only One You’ by Linda Kranz and discussing the important messages of being yourself and making your own way in the world whatever it throws at you.

Every student then decorated a stone in rainbow colours based on the fish characters in the story.

The stones will later be used to create an art installation on the school grounds to remember the Covid-19 pandemic, which the school acknowledges as ’a significant moment in history experienced in 2020’.

The installation will become a reminder of the story’s main message: ’There’s only one you in this great big worldâ?¦ Make it a better place!’

The children also took part in other activities arranged by their teachers, such as making rainbow biscuits, taking part in Zumba sessions and creating art as mementos.

They were also treated by the Friends of Anagh Coar School (FOACS) to a chippy lunch from The Michael Chippy Van, which did ’a brilliant job’ of serving 130 meals in an hour to children and staff.

There was a further delight for the children who were served an ice cream each from Davison’s Ice Cream van.

Student William Crellin, age eight, described it as ’the best day ever!’.

Headteacher Rob Coole said: ’Thank you so much to everyone who made this day possible and who helped make things run so smoothly.

’It really was a lovely day and great to be able to have fun with the children after they have done such a great job of staying home and staying safe for so long throughout the lockdown period.

’We feel so lucky to be back together at school, enjoying a normal life again and making more happy memories together - long may it continue.’

The NHS was launched on July 5, 1948, by Aneurin Bevan who was the Minister of Health, at Park Hospital in Manchester - which is known as Trafford General Hospital today.

This brought hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, opticians and dentists together under one umbrella group for the first time where care was provided for free.

Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive, NHS England and NHS Improvement, has called 2020 the ’most challenging year in the history of the NHS’ because of the Covid-19 pandemic.