I remember it so clearly: the first time waking up too early at 6 in the morning, looking out the window and seeing it was still dark, getting dressed and having breakfast, waiting to leave for my first huge day at London Nautical School; my mum dropping me off at the school gate and seeing Mr Dastigir saying hello to us new Y7s and to the other years. At first I was scared because it’s a new school and I only knew a couple of people from primary and my football team; everyone was staring at me and even the building seemed to tower over me. I went to my form 7w2s and decided to hang around with them as I knew I’m going to be in that form group until I leave school. I remember being dazed, confused and lost nearly every day and always asking the Y8-11s where the classrooms were. Making friends was not really hard, I just did what the majority of my year did at break and lunch, and that was to play football. Lunch at the school was good, especially on Fridays as that was the day we got fish, chips and beans. After a month it got to a point were everyone in my year knew we were going to get the same food every week, which was from Mondays – Thursdays chicken and rice and on Fridays fish, chips and beans. It wasn’t long until me and the majority of my year was bringing packed lunch. It took me around two months to know where every classroom was, and by then I didn’t need my timetable because I knew my lessons off by heart.
Year 8 was way better. I’d made lots of new friends in all years. Weirdly though, the school hadn’t changed since we left for the summer: dirty smeared walls, chewing gum was fused to tables, the toilets with no toilet roll- it was all bizarrely the same as a year ago . But me and my mates were so different. Break and lunchtimes changed for me; my mates introduced me to a new game to play and that was called pat ball. Pat ball is where you have a tennis ball and you must hit the ball at the wall with your hands, but it has to bounce when you hit it. This is a game played by no more then 10 people- you can play with more, but it would be much longer to wait for your turn to hit the ball. Although pat ball was a fun game to play, there was also a negative side to the game: this was people from the same year and different years taking the ball and running away with it, never to return. Much to my amazement, lunch was still the same as last year and by the first month of Y8, I was fed up with the sameness and decided to stick to packed lunch for the rest of the year. Around February was a turning point for our form. The Science Department decided to do a football tournament for our year for the whole day. I was in the 8W2S team and we won the tournament, showing that our form was the best at football that year. Y8 was a much more relaxing year for me. I could just have fun without worrying about anything.
I arrived at the school gate, about to start Y9. I came with my little brother, who was starting his first year at London Nautical School. He was as nervous as I was when I started my first year, so I showed him around the school and he then made some friends from his form group, so I just left him to do what he wanted to do.
I went to where all of my friends were and that was the bench near the wall where we play pat ball. I then went to our form room which was Room 111, a science room. We then got our new planners and timetables and went to our first lessons. Break and lunchtime was still the same as last year – all of my mates playing pat ball. Lunch was still the same at the school, but I didn’t mind because I lost my lunch card around the first month of Y8, so I just had packed lunch again.
In the second month of Y9, we got a bit bored with pat ball. Instead we had a massive game of Family It, which was so exciting because loads of people started to join, making the game more interesting. Unfortunately, this game also had a negative side: because we were running in the school, teachers would stop you if they caught you and give you detentions, so we didn’t just have to look out for the other team, we also had to look out for the teachers. There were about 2 months left until the summer break and we had to pick our options for GCSE, so I picked Spanish, Geography, Economics and GCSE PE. One month left in Y9, and our Head of Year was giving out positions to become prefect. I missed the first deadline, and didn’t make it as one. Then some boys got kicked off from being a prefect because of their bad behaviour, so there were five positions left; I wrote in saying why I wanted to become a prefect, and I got the place. The reason I wanted to become prefect and I am ashamed of saying this, is not to serve the school with honour and pride, But escape from the torture that was being served in the schools kitchen every single day since I have been in this school. At last, I didn’t have to have the school’s dinner any more and also I didn’t have to wake up early to make a packed lunch.
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