When he became a boarder in 1954, Malcolm's dormitory was in the cottage where there were three small dorms of two or three beds each. He recalled having 'bean feasts' on sweets which had been stashed up the chimney in their room. He also used to make Micromodels, paper models of railway trains, on his bed and got the glue on his rug. All boarders were expected to write home each week and some of Malcolm's letters were kept by his parents. One of the letters notes that Malcolm reached the position of monitor. Many of these activities, along with many more, are recorded in his diary of 1954. His School Reports also record his progress.

He remembered the headmaster, Peter Knatchbull-Hugessen, and also Mrs Gordon who was the co-owner of the school. They had three dogs, labradors Matthew and Mark and spaniel Luke; there was never a John. The School Lists show the structure of the school and list the masters, boys and fixtures for the term. Behaviour in school was regulated by a Housepoint scheme, + for good and - for bad and the total was issued at the end of term. Malcolm was probably in St.George's house. There is a very good book called Opposite the racecourse by David Allaway which gives a detailed history of the school.

Malcolm joined the school Scouts and was in Squirrel patrol. One summer he went to camp on Monkey Island in the Thames. He also joined the Pioneering corps which undertook interesting projects such as pulling up tree roots. On one such job one day, they were winching out a large tree stump and Mr Martin, the leader, went to inspect progress and found that had disturbed a wasp nest and he got stung. The Pioneers started to make bricks from clay in the school grounds with a view to using them to build a chapel, however, they were never used. Some of these events was recalled in The Old Papplewickian magazine of 2020.

On the sports field, Malcolm was good at athletics, especially the high jump. Cricket, however, was not his forte as once he was hit on the forehead by a ball once as a spectator and lost his nerve. He had seen the ball go up and come down towards him but was mesmerised by it and did not move out of the way. He managed to be allowed to look after the cricket kit instead of playing and that suited him just fine. He did play in one game though as when the school played a local girls school, he was made captain (he never understood why) and told to make sure everyone behaved properly. Due to his reluctance to play cricket, Malcolm was given the job of issuing cricket gear from the store to the players.

The school went swimming regularly in the summer term and were taken by bus to The Pantiles swimming pool in Bagshot. On snowy or frosty days they would be taken out for a formal walk around the locailty.

Malcolm took piano lessons and also joined the country dancing class. He always seemed to be given the ladies place so learned to dance backwards quite well, a matter he had to correct in later life. A formal dance was organised one day when girls were brought from another school. That was embarrasing enough for the boys but it got worse when the rest of the school filed in to watch.

He took part in several school plays for which the Green Room was more memorable than the plays themselves. Ordered chaos probably best describes it. Sometimes on a wet afternoon when sport was not possible, pupils would be made up into small groups and given 30 minutes to make up an ten minute play.

In 1953, Malcolm read the fourth lesson at the annual Carol Service.

During Ascot Gold Cup week, the school playing fields were used as a car park and Malcolm was one of the lucky ones who helped and as such wore a white coat. As he recalled, motorbikes were 2/6, cars were 5/- and coaches 10/- all day.

Malcolm could remember taking and passing his Common Entrance exams which enabled him to continue to public school in 1954. There are some pictures of prizegiving with Malcolm's father in attendance, probably in 1954.

Malcolm did attend an inaugural Old Boys Reunion some years after he left and remembers that the headmaster congratulated the attendees on their "sartorial elegance". Malcolm was wearing a green woollen herringbone suit. He made more trips back to the school with his wife in later years, one occasion being to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the School Chapel. The school publish The Old Papplewickian magazine annually.

Malcolm's brother Stewart followed him through Papplewick, being there between 1952 and 1956, and he appears in a school photo taken around 1955-56.