Explosions in the science lab, classroom selfies and terrible haircuts: Chemistry teacher's collection of photographs show four decades of life in London private school

A chemistry teacher has released a nostalgic selection of photographs which document everyday life at a London private school over the past four decades. The photographer's favourite photo shows plumes of smoke billowing into the air after an experiment in May 1978

An original selfie: The teacher Andrew Szydlo is pictured with five of his pupils in June 1975.  He said this particular image proves that selfies have also been around for decades and are not a new invention 

Sporting prowess: Athletes from Highgate School at Barnet Copthall Stadium in July 1976 after being locked in a changing room by rivals

Behind these walls: The collection show show Highgate School in north London (pictured) has changed between 1975 and 2015 

Modern times: Students from Highgate School, north London, in a photo taken in September 2009 entitled 'If man made it, man can fix it'

Strike a pose: Pupils in a photograph taken in 1986. The photographs have been released to mark the school's 450th anniversary

Girl gang: Four of the school's pupils, wearing their blue blazers, pose for a photograph in the playground at the school in April 2010 

Experimental: This photo shows a sixth-form experiment at the school in March 1976 - before strict health and safety laws were enforced

A pupil poses for a photograph entitled 'Please sir, someone stole my books...' in May 1987 (pictured left) while another pupil is seen dressed in uniform and wearing a gas mask during an outdoor learning class, in front of a huge plume of smoke, in October 1980 (right)

Travelling in style: Three pupils relax on the tube at Euston station on their way to the Science Museum for a school trip in October 1983

Vintage: Some of the school's pupils in a chemistry class in March 1996, highlighting the difference in hairstyles between then and now

Recent: Some of the pupils at Highgate School in April 2015. The uniform has barely changed throughout the years and includes the unmistakeable blue and red school blazer 

Reactions: Pupils from Highgate School, north London, in a photo entitled 'Combustion of methane', which was taken in June 1998

Firestarters: Two teenage pupils, wearing lab coats and goggles, carry out an experiment to test for oxygen in a class in November 2010

The photographs, including this portrait of a pupil in April 1986 (right), have been put together in a book called Schoolmaster's Diary (left)

Discipline: An amusing essay from 1975, written by a pupil at Highgate School, which says 'great disasters' would occur without discipline