I am writing to let your readers know that the Hillside School exhibition is now open at the Elstree & Borehamwood Museum, 96 Shenley Road.

This exhibition (open until the end of December) is well worth a visit from all who have their own memories of the school building on Hillside Avenue.

It vividly recalls a local institution that touched many lives in many ways; but Hillside’s success story through the second half of the 20th Century also has lessons for secondary schools facing the challenges in education in the UK today.

I saw through the development of Hillside into a comprehensive school, open to any or all of the boys and girls in the town, from 13 to 18 years.

I also contributed some of the material about those exciting years when the new Hillside Community Theatre was developed, in a school that was a truly neighbourhood institution for 60 years.

My contributions to the exhibition can also be read on-line at www.robertnewson.co.uk/hillside

Keith Newson

Via email