Pensioners returned to their old boys school 70 years after they first started in the final year of the Second World War.

Former pupils of William Ellis School in Highgate Road, near Parliament Hill Fields, shared their memories with current schoolboys last Wednesday.

The alumni, who are known as Old Elysians, first attended the school in 1945 when they were in first form – what is now known as Year 7. Now in their 80s, the small group of former pupils revisited to reminisce about their schooldays and see how the school has changed in the last seven decades.

Head of Year 7 and transition, Karl Altmann, who organised the visit, said: “I don’t think many state schools have an old boys system, so it was a real honour for us to show them around. It was nerve-wracking to make sure they were impressed, but they certainly were. It was a great morning.”