A FORMER pupil and now governor of Chipping Sodbury School has reflected on his “inspirational” time at the school, 60 years after starting there.

Melvyn “Mel” Jeffries’ life-long journey at the school, started when he first walked through the doors, of what was then Chipping Sodbury Grammar School, back in 1956.

“When I reflect on being at the school, it was an inspirational phase of my life,” said the 71-year-old, adding that “the teachers were excellent and always expected the best of you, setting the highest standards.

“It is a larger school now, with a wider range of ability, but the values which are so important for young people are still consistent.”

Having served two terms as a school governor, during which he helped spearhead plans for the new sports centre, and as deputy head teacher and the head of PE before that, Yate resident Mel paid tribute to the school that has played such a big part of his life.

“Learning is a lifetime experience, you are learning every single day,” he said.

“I definitely have and will forever be grateful to the school for giving me three of the most important things in my life – a wonderful education, a long and enjoyable career, and my wife Ruth, who was in the year below me at school.”

The couple married in 1970 and have two children, Philip and Melanie.

With a blossoming aptitude for sport, including a spell playing for the Bristol Rovers junior team, a young Mel turned his attention to academics, attending Loughborough College to study physical education, before returning to Chipping Sodbury after seeing an advertisement for a role at the school, teaching sports and physics – his other favoured subject.

But the decision to return to the school Mel know so well was not as easily made as he would like to admit.

“I questioned myself over and over, asking whether this was a sign or just a really silly idea,” he said, but added that he felt “there was something taking me back to the school.”

“It turned out it was a wonderful move, being able to work under the teachers who taught me and getting the opportunity to pass on what I had learned.”

Being commandeered by the local authority, Mel was given the chance to study a masters at the University of Bath, returning to the school a year later and eventually running the PE department.

“I had a team of staff who couldn’t stop doing things to inspire the pupils, they were so driven and in being so, drive me on too,” he said.

After his retirement in 2005, Mel’s desire to see the school improve the sporting facilities saw him be approached to become a school governor, which he said came as a surprise as shortly beforehand he had made a joke that “a great deal of money could be made by having a pop music festival at the end of the playing field” - which he said went down like a lead balloon.

“It has been a wonderful experience to be so involved with the school,” said Mel as he steps down. “The school will always have a special place in my heart, but there comes a time where the torch should be passed and this felt like the right time.”