Mike Jeffries, Class of 1976

Alumnus Mike Jeffries reminisces on his school days, as Cambridgeshire High School for Boys transitioned into the mixed sixth form college it is today. Through an impressive archive of his schoolbooks, photos and art, Mike journals his experiences and friendships through these formative years. Read on for an excerpt from his memoir, Punting at Night - A High School & Hills Road ‘70s:

“1969

Cambridgeshire High School for Boys was far enough away across the city, on Hills Road, a long morning bus ride. The first day I set off, blazer with castle crest, black trousers, smart black shoes, white shirt, school tie, school cap, satchel, school scarf handy, uniformed, already made distinctive and separate. Also clutching a fountain pen, everything had to be written in fountain pen with proper ink, no biro, no felt tips. I’d never held a fountain pen before.

The school was substantial and solid, set back a bit from the road. The main building was all high ceilinged rooms, making you feel tinier still, flashes of polished tiles and elegant licks of Art-Noveau iron-mongery supporting the polished wood of the bannisters. Class-rooms in this block were fronted with a raised dais, elevating the masters even further. In the basement there was a tuck shop, ideal for mid-morning crisps stuffed inside a bread roll, and at the other end of that corridor the Drama Store, a mysterious space that smelt of paint and canvas.

1973

Us pupils were aware the school was due to change but we would have changed anyway, stepping up to the sixth form, no longer in school uniform, focused on A levels and university. We did not give it much thought, nor did the change over feel very odd. Most fifth years stayed on, certainly all my friends did. Everyone thought the arrivals of girls would be astonishing, but it was not. The girls who had chosen to come to Hills road were well briefed, and way ahead of us. They slotted in to our world easily and we carried on much as before, probably to their amusement.

1975

Half-way through the second year my art world changed. In walked Mr Coney, chord flares, grandad shirt, cardigan, collar length blond hair. He had stepped out of a different world, to be precise his Model T Ford in maroon and black, gleaming, and all too soon labelled the Coneymobile. Mrs Coney was often alongside, long black hair, flowing dresses, beads, velvet. The very idea of Granny takes a Trip incarnate, which I had heard of but had little idea, and now live, in our art room. We are not going to do painting, he announced, we will make Super 8 movies.

My Art O level may have been an uneven mix of good ideas and awkward drawing but Mr Coney’s art room had its own pull. By January ’75 he had the basic set up to do the very same silk screen prints as Warhol, photo sensitive film that could then be transferred on the screen. Mr Coney set me off to try this out, a fiddly process in the tiny dark room wedged into the wall just before the main art room…after three weeks of failure a beautiful screen emerged from the red light.

A level biology, chemistry and geography plus Dada and animation. The edge of the Fens, the High school hemmed in by colleges. Cambridge set us loose, nothing was beyond us, except possibly the world everyone else had to endure. Not that we knew, we just carried on the everyday of lunch-time absurdist theatre, after school geography games and trips to the ICA and I was sketching folk around the school and in exams for collages.

1976

A levels were on us. You could feel the focus and importance but this never lurched into panic. Exams were what we were used to at Hills Road. We had been schooled for six years for this moment, teachers confident in our ability. By May, oddly, I’d had the fear I’ll just seize up in the middle of an exam; the nerves before hitting the stage. Once that paper is in front me of me the text flows.

The last school days, our performance in the Tempest over. A morose, odd mood, the idea of the school going on without us. We all feel it, Rupert, Robin, John, despondent. We had left Hills Road in theory but were still firmly rooted.”

After Hills Road, Mike went on to study Zoology, then a PhD in Ecology. He has spent most of his career in the university sector, recently retiring from Northumbria University.