Secondary School - first day

[80sChav]

I can recall this sort of (though not totaly alltogether), but I remember being well excited about it, though if I knew what I did now, i'd really see this truly see it even more differently I think though.

Mainly in the main it was about spending the first day in our Form Room and writing up our timetables/ learning about where places were in school etc, some of the best times of School that first week was for me I think on reflection before thing's became "the norm" as it were. It would be great if any other members recall your first day at High school/Secondary School and what happend etc?

80sChav

[Marine Boy]

Re: Secondary School - first day

I recall my first day quite well. We all crowded into the hall - there were four parallel classes in our year so it must have been about 120 kids. The classes were called out and off we went to our new classroom with our new teacher. Mine was Mr. Cope and he was by turns matey, funny and sarcastic. Nicky Cruz's 'Run Baby Run' was his choice of a book to read to us, which says something about the guy!

I sat right at the back, wishing it could all be over. Our form room was the technical drawing room with those easel things on each desk. Quite good to hide behind.

MB

[Richard1978]

Re: Secondary School - first day

I remember being sorted into forms & then spending the rest of the half day (my school always seemed to have a half day with no actual lessons at the start of each school year) copying down the timetable (quite complicated with 2 colour coded weeks in rotation) & being given the ropes by our form tutor.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Secondary School - first day

I remember us all having to gather outside in the yard to be sorted into our forms. I was excited but nervous and it was strange to be among such a big crowd of unknown people, all in identical uniforms. Once in our forms we started talking about which schools we had come from and suddenly it felt like sleeping with the enemy...all those hard-won netball matches and brooding resentment of my former 'rival schools' had to go. I couldn't quite get my head around the fact that I was now sharing a class with X from dodgy school A with the hard as nails, rough kids and Y from school B with the softy stuck up kids. I had immediate impressions of people from their school origins alone. It was worse than Hogwarts!

We'd been told which form we'd be in and the teacher's name at primary school so I had a full six weeks in which to conjure up some horrible thoughts about what my teacher might be like. Luckily he was ok, but dressed in the typical 80's garb of big coloured-rimmed glasses and jazzy, patterened shirt. Looked like a cross between Mark Curry and Timmy Mallett.

And yes, the timetable, which seemed like the most complicated document I'd ever seen, and getting used to bells going off between lessons and struggling to find my way around all the sprawling corridors. All quite terrifying!

[Marine Boy]

Re: Secondary School - first day

...And yes, the timetable, which seemed like the most complicated document I'd ever seen, and getting used to bells going off between lessons and struggling to find my way around all the sprawling corridors. All quite terrifying!

Yes. Richard talked about a two week timetable. Mine was mad too, ... something like a 6 or 8 day timetable where you went on the "day 1, day 2" thing rather than the actual day of the week. And the weird bells that you sometimes had to ignore. And the endless corridors and staircases. I remember longing for my primary simplicity.

[Richard1978]

Re: Secondary School - first day

My school had a red week and a blue week, & in 1 or 2 years there was an odd day where all the periods were 5 minutes shorter so there were 7 in a day.

The bells had a different ring on those days just to add to the confusion.

My school had 2 buildings which meant some days had a lot of walking between them.

[Marine Boy]

Re: Secondary School - first day

My school had a red week and a blue week, & in 1 or 2 years there was an odd day where all the periods were 5 minutes shorter so there were 7 in a day.

The bells had a different ring on those days just to add to the confusion.

My school had 2 buildings which meant some days had a lot of walking between them.

I had several buildings too. My poor little 11/12 year old mind trying to work it all out!

[Sly]

Re: Secondary School - first day

The first day at high school was an odd one. I went from a school that was a 5 minute walk from home, had about 80 pupils and where classes were took in the same room to a school where tings got turned completely on their heads.

The first day saw me taking the first of many 8am buses to school, at this time I was often one of the first people in, occasionally there would be 1 or 2 classmates but usually it was just me sat on my own until more classmates came in. The first day had me wandering around the various corridors trying to remember the open night I came to before the 6 week holidays. Eventually I managed to retrace my footsteps to C39, a class right next to the aviary in the maths block of the school.

Slowly new classmates dribbled into place, all segregating into their respective schools where they had come from. I was unlucky, none of my close riends had made it into the same form I had made it into. Eventually our teacher came and started barking orders out at us, she had a plan already in place where she lined us up in order of age, stood us up and the front and let us talk about ourselves before being told where to sit. After this we were given school organisers and told which classes we had. In the first year we had a really weird system where we'd have what they termed 'double' lessons, which were basically two 30 minute slots added on to each other. At least this time around every single student in the room was running off the same timetable, something which wouldn't be repeated in future years.

Once all the important stuff was done, we were given a little carton triangle that we had to put our names on. These were to be taken from class to class and displayed on your desk so teachers could learn your name. I didn't need mine long, some of the teachers might have been dumb, but it didn't take long for them to figure out who I was and that I was a smart a*se.

The school actually seemed empty, for year 7 students they had a week long duration where they were the only forms there, other than the people studying in 6th form. I remember once asking a 6th former direction to a class room I was looking for, gesturing to my organiser. She showed me the long way round, after walking me literally all over the school grounds I ended up back at the place I started, turns out I only had to go through the double doors I was stood next to and I'd of being there.

The most vivid memory I have of that day was the last lesson of the day. It was a 30 minute session of English with one of the old guard, a woman so fierce she had a reputation even outside of her own jurisdiction in the school. After teaching us for 25 minutes, she asks all of the class to take our organisers out. She then gave us homework that had to be done for the following day. For many of us it was the first time we'd ever had to take work home from school. It didn't really bother me, because I was a smart a*se with lazy tendency at my previous school I'd had it forced on me a few years earlier. I managed to deal with it quite well because of this reason.

I think that's about it for this entry, there are other things I could talk about, but I don't think this thead is the place for them. Maybe if the thread evolves enough to warrant another episode I'll come back and do another post.

[battyrat]

Re: Secondary School - first day

First day was mostly getting all the books and timetables sorted out.Quickly getting into a little group with other lads who quickly became your best buddies and worse enemys for the rest of your school life.Getting lost at every opertunity that arose between going to your classes.And quickly learning which teachers were a push over or tyrant.It was also the time we tried to find certain places to hide out,but teachers knew them all as I suppose in the past it had been tried by other pupils.There was also the rumours of the second years hating the first years and so forth and the fifth year hating everybody,not including the school ghost story which was still being told when my youngest brother went there some 15 years later or so(the ghostly janiter.....handyman in my day).We were all called into the hall and given a good talking to on our first day there and given a bible each without the teachers even considering what faith the pupils had of their own.We were made to put our names and address into it before they let us go.

[darren]

Re: Secondary School - first day

yes it was quite a shock arriving at my secondary school for the first time.
i was so nervous and the school clounagh jnr high was massive.

first day itself was not to bad.

me getting put into my class finding out my form teacher etc

of course i asked how to get to certain classes and id be sent all over the school only to find the classroom was right near me.
at a guess id say there where over a thousand pupils which was a big inxcrease on my primary school.
we where all nervous and the teachers where stressed out.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Secondary School - first day

My school had a red week and a blue week, & in 1 or 2 years there was an odd day where all the periods were 5 minutes shorter so there were 7 in a day.

The bells had a different ring on those days just to add to the confusion.

My school had 2 buildings which meant some days had a lot of walking between them.

I remember there were five 1 hour lessons per day when I first started but then it changed to 50 min lessons in 3rd year, with an extra one squeezed in each day. Two bell rings for lesson change, one bell ring for the janitor, multiple short rings for something or other, continuous ring get the hell out!

[darren]

Re: Secondary School - first day

how confusing richard.


all our periods where 35 mins long for the time i was there no red or blue week or different sounding bells on different days.

i found it hard enough finding my way without that confusion.

My school had a red week and a blue week, & in 1 or 2 years there was an odd day where all the periods were 5 minutes shorter so there were 7 in a day.

The bells had a different ring on those days just to add to the confusion.

My school had 2 buildings which meant some days had a lot of walking between them.

[80sChav]

Re: Secondary School - first day

I also recall receieving - I don't know if anyone else had a similar booklet, a booklet on the school too and still have this now (though it is held together by thread and the paper has nearly fallen apart), this was one of the best thing's (if not the best, par learning to have to look for yourself or suffer the repercuisions)


It is a great book this (I may try and scan it for here one day, if anyone was interested but minus the School's name etc). It had a brilliant amount of information and somehow though I hated the place with a minumal tnge of appreciation, I will always have time for it and never ever bin it. A real gem from the past, but how the string that threads through the priniting paper it was made on, before Computers took over such a mantle from a Typwriter - this is amzing how it still stay's together I think.

80sChav

[marc]

Re: Secondary School - first day

Before we actually started secondary school, we attended secondary school for a two day trial/introduction in July just before the school summer holidays. I can't remember much about it except that the was some banter between us boys and the female prefect who was assigned to watch over us during break, lunch time and walking between classrooms and buildings between lessons. The school seemed to be OK then.

Come the glorious September morning....

Getting up from bed wasn't the big problem, it was wearing that blasted uniform for the first time. New shoes, trousers, shirt, V-neck pullover, it all felt uncomfortable added with the choker, sorry, tie. I had dictated earlier that I had no intention of wearing it.

My mother's dictating was far stronger than mine!

I walked to school with a friend who lived two doors away. He was a year older than me. I think I moaned all the way into the school yard. We already knew where our registration room was. There was no problem, and we had already met our form teacher. I don't think we had assembly that morning, has I remember her explaining things to us, and making sure our emergency contact details were all correct.

Then to our first lesson, P.E.

I have never been keen on this, has I have never really been interested in sport. I decided I would put some enthusiasm into it. My thoughts were, A NEW SCHOOL! GIVE IT SOME ENTHUSIASM! On with the P.E. kit. Outside we were told to rune twice around the yard. This I did with some enthusiasm. Then.....

Into three teams....Six-a-side football. A game I detest with total hatred. I can't remember much other than walking around in some direction to the action. The ball came towards me so I gave it a kick...over somebodies head. The teacher blew his whistle...followed by a lecture about not kicking the ball up in the air when there was only six on each side. Each game would only last for so many minutes has there were three teams. Back playing the teacher shouted to me to "GET IN ON THE ACTION!" I ran towards where four boys were tackling the ball. The ball again came towards me, I ran forward and kicked it towards the goal...The whistle was blown again. "YOU WERE OVER THAT LINE!" He yelled at me again. I did very little for the rest of the lesson.

I was a little peeved off but a couple of minutes into break, I decided I would forget about it.

After break, was the French lesson. Nobody else had any knowledge of this, so we were all in the same boat. Again we entered the room with tremendous enthusiasm........That's when I first came face to face with the little runt, Mr Phipps. I can't remember much about what we wrote in our exercise books, it was more of his dictating. How much homework we would be given. Detentions were freely given for not doing homework. He openly admitted he was a disciplinarian. A text book was given to each of us. This had to be covered with paper. Anybody who did not cover it, would be given a text book with pages that were falling out and covers falling off. He admitted he did not care if the parents complained, that would be that. It turned out to be a long lesson. One hour and ten minutes seemed like an eternity.

I can't remember anything about the lunch time or the afternoon, but I do remember about arriving home.

My grandmother was living with us at the time. She asked what it was like. I put a brave face on and said it was quite good. Looking back, I wish I had told her I hated the place. Evan by the first Christmas, I had made my mind up I would leave at the end of the fifth year regardless of any qualifications.

Has a footnote, I rarely see anybody I was in secondary school with. Recently I bumped in to somebody who was in school with me. The conversation came up about that school. Like me, that person mentioned that first French lesson and the impact it had.

[big kid]

Re: Secondary School - first day

on the first day of secondary school, a few of us all walked together. some of the lads had been there already and were in the fourth year. when we arrived, us newbies were assigned to out classrooms. the teacher was ok, games was the first lesson that we had, the teacher was called mr. crank. truly awesome guy. hell of a shot with a basketball as well, as one of the scrotes found out.

come lunch time, we were supposed to go to the dining hall. the queue was horrendous, so we walked out and went to the bakery around the corner.

after lunch we had a few lessons. not sure what they were as it was a while back.

i was glad when that first day was over.