Rushden boys plan 50 Year reunion

Former pupils of Rushden Boys Comprehensive School are arranging an anniversary reunion to mark 50 years since they left school and are looking for more than 100 'missing' classmates to join them.

The Boys School, which stood on Tennyson Road, used to be the only secondary school for boys serving Rushden and Higham Ferrers and had a school roll of almost 1,200 pupils, but it was closed in 1991 and later demolished.

Richard Houghton, one of the organisers of the reunion, said: 'We had a reunion back in 2011 and managed to get 24 of us altogether. But there were 160 fresh-faced eleven year olds standing in that assembly hall back in September 1971, so even though we've lost one or two classmates along the way, there's still over a hundred lads we'd really like to try and make contact with and hopefully see at the reunion.'

Richard said: '1971 was an historic year for the school as we were the first intake of pupils to be taught under the comprehensive system following the abolition of the grammar school system.

'The school's headmaster, Bert Catlin, whose name will be familiar to generations of schoolboys who attended the school, was immensely proud to have the honour to educating these kids.'

Pupils from the class of 1971 left school either in the summer of 1976 after doing CSEs or O levels or following A Levels in 1978 and it's these that Richard and his fellow organisers are hoping to attract to the reunion.

He said: 'A lot of boys from our year went off to university and were amongst the school's very first pupils to do so. So a lot of them went on to have careers around the world and not everyone lives in Rushden or Higham any more, although they may still have family connections in the area.'

Richard added: 'As well as former pupils, we'd love to see any of our old teachers at the event. I'd reel off some of their nicknames, which I can still remember after 50 years, but some of them were quite rude so might not be suitable for a family newspaper!'

The reunion is planned for Saturday, 18 January 2025 beginning at 7.30pm at Rushden Windmill Club.

Anyone wanting more information can contact Richard on [email protected].