This article is not intended to be an autobiography. It relates to the experiences of the author as a pupil in a secondary modern school in Wiltshire during the late 1950s and early 1960s. He suffered the experience of being an 11-plus failure and a secondary modern graduate at the age of 15 years. Later in life he had a much more rewarding career as a teacher in a comprehensive school. He supports the comprehensive school ethos because he had previously experienced the alternative. This article relates what his perceptions were of being a pupil in a secondary modern school, with a mixture of the "old guard teachers" brought up on the Hadow ideology of a modern school, and the more dynamic young teachers who entered the school and had a profound influence on the author in shaping his future life and career.