battling a beast

Hi everyone!

Yesterday I faced one of the toughest, roughest, stickiest, ickiest, and scary things the world has ever known.

I went to school.
(insert dramatic music here)

To tell you the truth, it wasn't as hard as I thought. After a few classes, I was understanding the layout of the school. (My school = The Beverley Grammar School)

So, here goes a description of my day......


First, I get there, and wait in the reception office. (the head of year 8 said he was going to meet me at 8:45 there, and introduce me to my form teacher.) I waited, and waited. We had gotten there ten minutes early though, so I understood.

Eventually, the teacher came and got me, and took me to my form room. (you see, every student belongs to a form. sort of like harry potter houses, only more of them. the students in each form have all their classes together, save a small few, such as maths, and ITC(computer lab.)) The form teacher was very nice, and it turns out that an american boy that is a member of my church was also in my form! how handy!

So, first, you take attendance in your form, and then have some free time. After that, we went to science. There, we watched a movie, and the teacher gave us candy. Quite a difficult class, huh?

Next, we went to maths. The only reason we DIDN'T watch a movie was because the teacher's DVD player wasn't working. So, instead we just played a couple different math-ish games.

During maths, the teacher asked if everyone in the class knew what maths class they were going into next year. All the students responded that they knew. Except one. (three guesses who it was.) Me. She gestured me out the door. She took me into another classroom with another teacher, and they discussed what to do regarding my lack of maths placement. At this point, I didn't really care what I did, because I was bored of watching a movie. They suggested two options:

a) Just place me in a middle class and see how I do
or
b) Give me a math test to assess what level I should be in.

They decided on the latter.

I was not terribly thrilled about this decision, but I wanted some form of work to do.
They decided to bring me over in fourth period, normally geography, and have me take the test then.

So, continuing with my adventures......

Next, we had break, which, in short, is a ten or twenty minute (I can't recall which) break period, during which you can either relax in a classroom, get food from the cantine or from home, or relax outside. I decided to hang out with most of the kids in my form, and just relax in a classroom. Not the most thrilling thing, but I didn't mind, because I was attempting to get to know the other kids in my form. (oh yeah, the kids in your form, your head teacher, and your form teacher all stay the same until you graduate.)

So, we went to history, and watched another movie.

Then, we went to lunch, which you can eat either in the cantine, or outside on the school grounds. I chose to eat outside, because of the nice weather.

Then, while the other kids went to geography, I was escorted to the maths room, to take my test. (bum bum bum!!)

I was given a fair-sized test, and a pen to do it with. It took all of fourth period to complete, but it wasn't really too hard.

So, afterwards, some kids from my form came and brought me to the ITC room, which is, basically, a computer lab. It was then that I noticed I didn't have a school login. Uh-oh.

So, me and another student went to the computer tech room. On the first visit, no one was there, but after trying again, the tech guy was in there.

When I asked for a login, he grinned, and said, "On the last day?" I grinned, and nodded. He moved to his computer, and then asked, "When did you start?" When I replied that today was my first day, he grinned even bigger and started to chuckle. When I realized how ridiculous my request was, I began to laugh as well. He gave me a login, and I was able to have some time on the computer in the ITC room.

During that class, one of the maths teachers that had discussed how to place me came in and talked to my teacher. Afterwards, he took me outside of the classroom, and said that he had "marked"(graded) my test, and didn't want to leave me uninformed all of the holiday. He said that I had done "brilliant" on it, and that they had two top classes, and I was to be in one of them.

Maybe this math test wasn't so bad after all.

After being asked what the guy had needed, I told them about what he had said. (they knew about how I had had to take a maths test.)

ITC was the last class of the day, and afterwards I went home.

What a day, huh?