This summer (2024), we had the pleasure of showing Alastair Meek, OH 1967-77 and Helen Meek (née Parsons), OH 1976-78 around their former school.

Alastair and Helen met in 1976, when he was in the Upper Sixth Form and she was starting Hymers in the Lower Sixth, overlapping at the school for a year.  During that year, they started dating and while stood in the Main Hall during their return visit, they remembered waving to each other from their form rooms of A1 and B8!  Although Alastair and Helen went their separate ways after leaving Hymers, they reunited years later and married at the start of 2024.

When Helen started at the school, there had only been a handful of girls educated at Hymers before her.  She started at the same time as Christine Jennings, OH 1976-78 and knew Véronique Bouchet, OH 1975-77 and Jackie Sprinz, OH 1975-77 in the year above, the same year as Alastair.

During the walk around the school, they saw how it had changed, with the 'new' theatre, Junior School, Learning Resource Centre and swimming pool, which Alastair wished he'd had the opportunity to swim in when he was at the school!  They also saw the changes to where their Junior Common Room was, which used to have the library and Senior Common Room above.  Possibly a telling sign, but it was Helen who remembered that there was a library after Alastair insisted there wasn't one there in the 1970s!

If any former student or staff would like to re-visit the school, please contact oldhymerians@hymers.org to arrange a visit.

Related Article:

• Co-Education Memories from Alastair Meek, OH 1967-77