Because I know a lot of users are American on here, I'll make this clear first of all, just for anybody who doesn't know. In England instead of calling our school stages 'grades' (i.e. first-grade second grade) we call them 'years' (i.e. year 1, year 2). The reason why I am writing about year 6 (when you're aged 10-11) because that is the last year of primary school, then you move on to secondary. Right now, I'm in my last year of secondary (Year 11) then I'm going to college for 2 years, then university! So where shall we begin?
1) Being The Oldest Kids In The School
Haha, there is no better feeling! You feel on top of the world, so big like you're the bosses and nothing and nobody can tell you what to do! Unless they're your parents or teachers of course, still got to respect the elders.
My primary school, in fact, gave us a sense of responsibility. At the beginning of lunchtime, about 5 of us would help supervise the younger kids, kids who were about 4 or 5-years-old. We'd play games with them, make sure they don't do anything too silly, and if any argument between them happened to take place, we'd help sort it out. It did make us feel mature and responsible.
I remember one time I had to go to eat my lunch after supervising them for a short while but this one little girl didn't want me to go, so she hugged me really tight to try and stop me from going. My friends had to pull her off me because I didn't want to just throw her off. It was adorable though. XD
2) Sitting On The Bench In Assembly
Because you were the oldest year group in the school, instead of sitting on the floor and crossing your legs like the other years - you got to sit... On a bench.
This was another thing which made you feel grown up. Oh no, no longer did you get up and your legs ached from crossing them for so long, you'd be sitting on the bench legs not hurting a single bit and younger kids would look at you all waiting until they could park their bums on the bench.
3) SATs Exams
They weren't your GCSEs, nor were they your A-levels... They were your SATs...
Which teachers made out to be the most difficult thing on Earth. They were the first exams I ever revised for, I still even have my SATs revision guide somewhere... Now I don't even remember what I got for my SATs.
But at the time, they were important because they determined what sets you'd be in for secondary school.
We got treated great during SATs week though, we got breakfast club, extended play time... We got to bring sweets and our 'good luck' charms into school, so all of a sudden, every kid had a good luck charm. XD
After SATs week was even better, we made bread, models out of clay, there were options to do and I opted to be in a play in which was about bullying (because I was tiny I was the one being bullied XD) and we did a dance in that play, to a song called Hopeful by Bars and Melody and then on the last day we went to the cinema and watched Godzilla and then went bowling. It was great :P
4) "Which school did you get?"
A question which many people asked because our parents had to list a number of secondary schools that we wanted to go to the following year, it being our last year of primary school.
When I first got my secondary school letter I was so happy until my mum opened it in the school playground... I was NOT happy with the school I got. I started crying, in the school playground.
I enjoy it at my secondary school now, so looking back at that I feel silly but I understood why I cried haha. Basically, my secondary school isn't the best school now, and it was even worse back then. Because it was a bad school, people over exaggerated times 1000.
Apparently, people were throwing bricks at each other, getting stabbed, chasing each other up trees and strangling them. I was 11-years-old and been told all these stories about the school from other kids who also believed the stories, so I was pretty naive and believed it all.
Even one kid who got the same school as me asked me: "Did you cry when you found out you got that school?" I stayed silent because I didn't wanna admit I cried. Then he said: "I cried." and then I was like: "I cried too" then we went on to discuss how we cried.
When I got there, I soon found out it wasn't as bad as people made out, nobody was throwing bricks, or getting stabbed or chasing each other up trees and strangling them. The worst the older kids did to me was send me the wrong way to class when I asked for directions.
5) Transition Day
Transition day was the day you would go to the secondary school you got, for one whole school day to experience what it was like.
For me it was daunting and terrifying the kids were so tall, the school was so big, the crowds were a nightmare and so many stairs! Yet at the same time, it was one of the best things I had ever seen, which is sad I know but I don't get out much. The teachers seemed really nice and the students who toured us around weren't the monsters I expected them to be.
But I did something really stupid on my transition day.
My school has 3 gates, one near the football pitch, which leads out of the top of the street, and one which leads out the bottom. My dad was picking me up from transition day and he told me to wait at the bottom because that's where he would be waiting because it's literally a 5-minute walk from the bottom gates.
But I didn't know the school had other gates, all the gates looked the same to me and so did the streets so I couldn't tell the difference. So I waited at the top gates for almost an hour and I'd thought my dad had forgotten about me. But these kids who go to the school found me there and walked me down to the bottom gates where my dad was waiting. He didn't seem angry at first but when we got home he was fuming.
We look back it and laugh at it now, it was pretty stupid but I was only 11 and how was I supposed to know there was more than one gate? XD
6) Leavers' Assembly
We didn't really have one of these officially but we had one which wasn't called a leavers' assembly but kind of was if that makes sense.
Anyway, this was filled with a soppy talk about how this was the last time ever the headteacher would probably speak us in an assembly all together as year 6 students. Then another soppy talk about how we're all going to grow into great human beings and take on the world, wow, I get misty even thinking about it.
I didn't cry, but I wanted to. There were kids who cried, but I didn't want to look like a baby in front of everyone so I just cried when I got home instead.
7) Getting Everyone to Sign Your T-Shirt
It was so fun running around the classroom getting people to sign your t-shirt. All different colours, all different signatures it was brilliant. Literally, everyone signed each other's t-shirts even the people who didn't get along with each other over the years. There's just something about letting kids run wild around the classroom, giving them felt-tips and letting them write on a shirt which brings them together.
Then after we'd finished getting everyone in the class to sign the t-shirt we'd get everyone in the other class to sign it, then we'd go out on the field at play time and get kids from the younger years to sign it. Even if we didn't know each other too well it'd be like: "Well, I saw you on the way to school so I kind of know you so you can sign my t-shirt" and they would.
I don't know how I managed to fit so many signatures on my tiny t-shirt...
8- The Last Day
For our last day of year 6, it wasn't spent in the school. Instead, we went on a school trip to the zoo. The trip was fun, my first time at a zoo, we saw lots of animals, we ran around the zoo like animals, I had my first ice-cream sandwich
at the zoo.
I have motion sickness and I wasn't even sick on the journey to the zoo and back!
It's the journey back I remember the most. Sat with my childhood best friend, we were singing songs from Frozen, we talked about how we'd both register on a website so we can still talk to each other, then I revealed to her I hadn't seen Frozen yet and she was shocked. Then this kid fell asleep by the time we arrived back at school and we all shouted his name so he could wait on. One boy even asked this girl to be his girlfriend but she rejected him saying there was no point because it was the last day and she wouldn't see him again.
Then when we got off the bus it hit us all in one. That was our last time as a group together. The last time as students at that school. Even the boys who tried to be "tough" and "bad" started crying. Everyone did. We were all hugging each other and crying and our parents were just watching us. My mum practically had to drag me away. I cried all the way home, I cried when we got home, I went upstairs and cried myself to sleep. I was just so sad for me back then. I'd grown attached to that school been going there for 7 years and now it was all just gone.
Turned out I was a HUGE cry baby xD
But hey, secondary school isn't that bad sure. Do I miss primary sometimes? Sure! We had less homework, the lessons were way more fun and life was just so much simpler back then. Instead of coming home and doing a mountain of revision and my homework, I'd sit on the sofa and either watch CBBC, CITV, Nickelodeon, Boomerang or Disney Channel, or I'd go play outside, or read a book or play with loom bands. But secondary school has been good for me too, it's made me more mature and realises change isn't all bad and that I will make friends wherever I go. And that I'll lose friends, not because we've fallen out or anything but because time and distance just tear you apart. I don't even speak to my childhood friend anymore, I know it sounds really bad but she went to a different school and so did I. Throughout our first 3 years of secondary school we did meet up, in holidays and things but it just wasn't the same. Then the workload got on top of us both and we eventually just moved on and stopped talking. But I know she hasn't completely forgotten about me because she still texted me happy birthday last year. So who knows? Maybe we'll meet again someday.
Anyway thanks for the read! :) <3
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