Blasts from the Past: Sixth Form Year Books

I was recently asked by a teacher if there was a copy of the yearbook for 2004 Senior School leavers in the school archive. Opening up the small box marked ‘Sixth Form Year Books’ I discovered there were only copies from 1994 – the first ever yearbook to be compiled – 1995, 1997 and 1999. Although none of these were the item requested, I paused to flick through them, somewhat intrigued. I was met with pages of passport-style, at times grainy, black-and-white photographs of teenage boys, accompanied by their self-proclaimed interests and ambitions. There were even grainier images of teachers, sometimes with slightly cheeky captions. Indeed, as I read on, I had to set aside my own thoughts about schoolboy humour; it is not my place to judge the past, simply to reflect on it as fairly as possible (as the historian David Olusoga once said, ‘History doesn’t exist to make us feel good... History is just history.’) Besides, the yearbooks were not intended for me or any other outsider to read. They were a means of connecting a group of people, some of whom had known each other for ten years, through private jokes and shared memories.

‘A yearbook is only as good as the year it books. K.C.S. has meant very little to some people, a little too much to others. For everyone though, this yearbook should help us remember the institution which guided our first tiny, tentative steps towards maturity. Hopefully we should never need this book to look up good friends because the bonds formed are solid ones.’ (Editorial, 1999 Yearbook)

Popular in American schools for decades before they made their way across the Atlantic, the humour and overall tone of those in the school archive feels very homegrown. There is no room for sentimentality – or even that much sense; irreverence and sarcasm were clearly the order of the day.

Reading the pupils’ ambitions for their future was especially amusing. They range from ‘none’ to ‘rule the world’ (world domination is a recurring theme). There is much variety in between, from achieveable aspirations such as ‘to become a journalist’, to the slightly less realistic ‘to become a test-driver for Ferrari’. Some of the more memorable responses include –

‘to own a goat’

'to climb Mt. Everest. Walk to the Poles. Get a Mini Cooper'

'to go two months without crashing a car'

'to succeed in haste and to live at leisure'

'to see Scotland rise and be a great nation again'

'to see Scotland win something other than bowls'

Several feature variations on Wimbledon Football Club doing well, with respondents hoping to see them win the Premier League and succeed in Europe (one even hoped to own the club one day).  Are such ambitions still simmering away, especially now that the present iteration of the club, AFC Wimbledon, has been promoted to League One?

Probably the most honest answer, however, and one which I imagine would still be true for pupils today, is: ‘to find something I enjoy doing and do it well.’

I do not know if the style and content of these yearbooks has changed over the years but it would be interesting to find out. Which brings me back full circle: if anyone still has a copy of their yearbook, I would be very grateful if you would loan it to the archive so that a digital copy can be made. I am especially keen to get a copy of the 2004 yearbook.

As ever, please do email if you have stories to share or questions about the school archive: I can be contacted at archive@kcs.org.uk.

Dr Lucy Inglis | School Archivist