On Monday 23 February members of the Petersfield U3A attended Churcher's for a practical lesson each dissecting a sheep's eyeball under the supervision and guidance of Biology teacher Mandy Westwood. Amongst the students was Graham Swan (69) - for whom it wasn't the first time he had sat in a Churcher's College biology practical, albeit after a gap of some 58 years! Graham came equipped with his old biology exercise book dated 23 January 1967 complete with a beautifully illustrated and labelled diagram of the left eye - a piece of history dating back to his time in the fifth form!

We have since contacted Graham to discover what he has been doing since leaving school and how his talent for drawing led him into a career in Architecture...

"It is fair to say my links with Churcher's started well before I stepped through the School's Portal. My father, who worked in local government, had his office on the top floor of 'Old College' with a window that looked out over College Street." Graham started life in Horndean and went to a very small primary school in Blendworth where there were only 8 pupils in a year, and 4 year groups in one classroom. "Consequently, it was a bit of a shock for me when I started at Churcher's College in the Autumn of 1962 having only just turned 11. At that time the school had around 400 pupils and operated a Direct Grant status so there were fee paying pupils and others, like me, who were funded by the County. It was an all-boys school in those days and around 25 percent were borders."

Graham explains he was a proud member of 'the best house' Nelson and played many sports, representing the school particularly in hockey and tennis - both of which he continued to play to a good club standard for many years after leaving school. By the time he was in the third year, his family moved to Petersfield and he has lived here ever since.

At school Graham explains "I was never particularly academic and struggled with some subjects, particularly in exam conditions... I left Churcher's in 1968 with modest O Levels with the decision that A Levels were not for me."  Graham attended Highbury Technical College for two years studying for a full time OND in Building. He achieved high marks across the board and his OND was accepted by Portsmouth Polytechnic's School of Architecture as the equivalent of two A Levels. After seven years of training (including two years in industry) and gaining membership of the Royal Institute of British Architects Graham's career spanned almost 40 years in mainly commercial work. Although most of Graham's projects have been outside Petersfield, one major local project included designing the Petersfield Golf Club clubhouse which was built in the 1990s. It is this very same clubhouse that hosts the annual Churcher's Golf Day -  a popular fundraising event in aid of the Richard Churcher Foundation and the provision of bursaries.

Graham has been a member of the Petersfield U3A since retiring in 2015, attending meetings and talks particularly involving technology and the arts.  Most recently, this included the practical biology lesson at Churcher's College which involved dissecting a sheep's eye! "It just happened that I had found an old Churcher's College exercise book of mine dated 1967 that included an annotated drawing of a cross-section through an eye. I realised that type of illustration was something I took forward into my career as it showed in drawn form how something worked, how it was put together and annotated in a way that it could describe the workings to other people." Graham explains that this is a very similar process to describing building proposals throughout the design process. "So in a sense I've come full circle and, in doing so, demonstrated that education doesn't have to follow a rigid stereotype".

We would like to thank Graham for telling us all about his 40 year career in architecture and we were delighted to welcome him back to Churcher's.