I was born in August 1950 and until the Sixth Form, when I took an extra year after A levels to study and take A level Art History, I was always the youngest in the class - so just turned 11 when I started at Downer.

I was a student again from 1997 to 2000 (in my mature years - Archaeology & Anthropology), then I worked for the University of Cambridge in the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, 2003 to 2010, when I retired.

I remember being on two school trips, both mixed, a trip to the Netherlands (can't remember the date), before a trip to Italy in 1965.  We must have crossed on the ferry to The Hague, stayed at Scheveningen and visited a model village (which I see from the web is called Madurodam).  Maybe this trip was an experiment with mixed trips, staying in just one hotel, and a coach taking us to a few sites, and then because it all worked, more adventurous trips were organised.  I don't think I have any photographs, but I distinctly remember the breakfasts, because instead of jam or marmalade for our bread we had ‘hundreds and thousands’ in many varieties to sprinkle on the buttered slices of bread - mixed colours, white only, blue only or my favourite - chocolate.  I don't remember how long the trip was, but possibly quite short.

I remember walking around a small town one evening with one of the boys.  I had completely lost my sense of direction, but he knew where we were and got us back to the hotel/hostel.  This was not a ‘romantic’ boyfriend/girlfriend walk - we just found ourselves away from the group (and he was a bit shorter than me).

I don't think either trip was in August, that would have been quite hot (particularly in Italy).  How about June/July after the O’ levels for Italy, within or immediately after the school term?  And Scheveningen could have been Easter, or a half term.

Cost was certainly an issue - skiing trips were out of the question, and I was lucky that my parents thought the trips to Holland and to Italy were educational.

Mr Reeve (Maths) and Mr Barker (Classics) were two of the teachers.  We travelled on a couchette through France, I think we actually stayed in, or just outside Florence, then in Rome, and then somewhere near Naples.  I can't remember if a coach was hired for the travel within Italy - I think that must be what happened - with excursions to Herculaneum (bordering the Gulf of Naples) and a boat trip to Capri.  The seas were an amazing clear turquoise and I think the boat went into some of the sea caves.

Now that I have started thinking about these trips, I realise we had at least one pizza meal in one of the places we stayed at in Italy, but I had no idea what pizzas were.  Not individual pizzas but several large trays of baked dough covered with tomatoes and cheese, cut into squares.