Another Year Down

Everyone here at the TOFI blog has now officially – in one way or another – completed their fourth year of education at the Whitecross Comprehensive Secondary School. This leaves us – again, in one way or another – Possibly facing our last 300-odd days of education, with then following through with out penultimate decision as to where we choose to lead our lives. Some will be Gritting their teeth at full time employment for the first time, some will be going onto further education in local colleges or sixth forms, others will be moving away – some as far as out of the country. Yes, this is the last 300-odd days the whole of year 10 will be together as one big group – dubbed by Whitecross staff ‘Family’ – and people will inevitably have differing opinions on all these facets of our development.

I for one, want to reflect briefly on the year that has passed us ever so quickly. We, as a year group, found ourselves staring in the face of one out of two of the most important years of our lives we’ve yet to meet – our first year GCSEs. This was the year we’d change. This was the year that we’d have more exams than we’ve ever had before – and probably the most we will have in one year in our entire life at Whitecross. Some were experiencing the buzz that people get when starting something new, something fresh, something different. Others, tilted their head backwards on their chairs and they filled in their timetable with much reluctance. They saw Maths – with Mr Norris, or English with other unfavourable teachers (Subject to personal opinion, and I in no way shape or form have a bias opinion on Mr Norris, I’ve never even had him as a teacher and probably never will). They pondered, they spoke, they queried, who would be in their class with them. Would they be similar to the structured sets we’d all been used to all our schooling lives? We all kinda knew they weren’t going to be. But it was fun at the time anyway. Having filled in our planners, read the Core Values and all the other garble, we’d go for our first break of the year – some dared whispered “Year 10 won’t be half bad, eh mate?”

After two or three weeks, you started to gel into the new classes. No real coursework had been set at this point, everyone was comfortably happy. They were satisfied with how their ‘Year’ had panned out so far. They noticed a few of the new kids – some of which had actually been at whitecross for years, maybe even in your class for years, but had never noticed. It was early October, the summer sun now becoming so old, and the trees seemed to be burnt in the long hot summer we’d endured (Ha, sarcastic remarks make adrenaline flow) with a dark brown, or yellow, and had now started to loose the leaves the trees had taken the whole year to grow.  Some of us had already ruined the new equipment from the asda “Back to school” range, some of us had even injured ourselves during early year rugby. Late October however, things began to change. Coursework Deadlines became visible in the sight of everyone. COURSEWORK. We thought very little of it, yet now it dominates our whole existence to be. What are we without coursework? and why hasn’t someone attempted a religion on this yet?

Christmas passed, and after that, the rest of the year litterally flew by. So quickly that i cannot remember much about the proceeding three or so months. Which is lucky in a way, because this post might be getting alittle tiresome in the brains of y’all by now.

From a personal perspective, I reflect on the friendships I’ve made this year, the ones I lost connection with, and how much people have changed over the time. People do change, and sometimes it can see for the worse for you, but it happens and you have to adapt. I can easily see the next year flowing by, and we will all be blinking into the bright light of the real world – where there are no guarantees. Something tells me the next twelve months will change us completely. I cannot write extensively about the future as none of us know what it will contain, but one things for certain, school ends soon. Forever.