Janet Ball, who is better known as the journalist and broadcaster Janice Street -Porter was a pupil at Peterborough School during the early 1950s. In her highly readable autobiography 'Baggage'* she recalled the daily routine of drinking school milk and the ordeal of meal times

"I attended the infants school drinking the unpleasantly lukewarm free school milk from its little bottle during morning break and struggling with tapioca and semolina at lunchtime in the building next door, where we sat at long tables and were supervised by meal attendants. One memorable day eight children were rounded up  and filed out in a line behind a teacher to see Miss Wheeler, the Headmistress.. She administered two slaps on the right hand of each offender. Their crime? Throwing food around and persistently disobeying the meal attendants. From then on I stuffed my food I couldn't eat in my pockets and tipped it out in the playground later."

Miss Street-Porter was brighter than most of her peers but her talent was almost lost, as she explained. 

"When I was about six my eyes were tested after my parents realised I couldn't see the numbers on the front of the 22 bus in Fulham Road. Eureka! I went straight to the top of the class-I could read the blackboard at last. From then on, it didn't really matter that other kids called me Olive Oyl because I was tall and skinny, or poked fun at my glasses. I was smarter than they were and could tolerate the teasing. I became obsessed with winning at everything, from cards to spelling to maths and rounders."

There are many more references to Peterborough School in the book and descriptions of life in Fulham during the 1950s.

* 'Baggage'  Headline Book Publishing 2004