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This autumn Impington Village College, in the rapidly growing commuter belt around Cambridge, has had a bit of a moment. The comprehensive academy – my old school – has seen the culmination of a two-year celebration set up to mark its 75th anniversary, and it’s been bursting with activity – holding lectures, symposia and workshops.

Arranging chairs and organising photographs at the school on an autumn morning is Elena Cologni, artist in residence at the school. “Impington has such a rich story: the social history, the architectural history,” she says. “It’s of international relevance.” And yes, it is – although as an undistinguished Impington alumnus from the 1970s, I didn’t appreciate it at the time.

Still, I knew that Impington had two key claims to fame. The first was that it was one of a pioneering group of rural schools in South Cambridgeshire called the village colleges, also including Sawston, Bottisham, Linton and Bassingbourn – with others (including Soham and Comberton) arriving later in similar spirit. Set up by pioneering educationalist Henry Morris, chief education officer for Cambridgeshire, the village colleges became a national model for a kind of community-based comprehensive, before the Butler Act came along.

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