1989 School years Part 1 - First year at Secondary level education

Credit :google images My pre head injury School years Part 1 - First year at Secondary level education In 1989 I was in secondary school year 7 (the first year for old people like me!). What I found out very quickly is that you don't grass up to the teachers and that it was weird calling teachers Mr and Mrs not their surnames. On the first day there were so many unfamiliar people in the school, and the building felt so big I feared getting lost in the environment I just walked into. I was scared deep inside and hope it didn’t show on the outside. I also felt excited as it was NEW and for months I had been preparing for this step in small ways. One of those preparations which I recall in the summer was my friends from primary school and couple of guiding parents took a trial run on the Number 1 Bus route destination Secondary school. This was to ensure that we were aware of how to take our independent steps into travel. It was successful and made us confident – what I was not prepared for was the crowded bus jammed backed with school kids in the September, but I learned to squeeze and jostle my way on to that bus without thought over the coming days, weeks, month years. Over the coming week there were occasions of getting completely disoriented. We had been given a A4 sheet of paper the ticket to being able to be successfully navigate time and environment - A good old Timetable if you lost well there was not hope and it felt there was no help around, Luckily, I managed not to lose my Timetable. The year group was huge and was divided down into form groups for morning and afternoon registration. what was different from primary school was we didn’t stay in one classroom. Students would travel round the school to different subject Classrooms. Classes where mixed you would not have all the same students on one subject that you have in another this meant having to get to know people very quickly. In the being this was very much a learning of characters, there were those who we were familiar with and were already our friends from primary school which was the bright side. Then there were those that we did not know we had to learn who were the people we could be friends with. There were so many different characters, there where people would where perceived as hard, they type of person that you didn’t cross in anyway or it meant a fight avoiding them was key to secondary school survival. There were such a variety of character, the Sports fanatics who had the talent for all sports, the Expressive arts, The Kenner’s people that know it all and the people who liked to please the teacher ALWAYS and then there where the people who like to grass you up to the teachers. It was essential to get to know who the different character were as we be together for 4 to five years. I think it fair to say it took me about a month to work out the lay of the land. The best part of school was at lunch time because we could play FOOTBALL 45 minutes long. It was Wembley singles, or the Wembley doubles and the other option was one big match on the tarmac tennis courts or against the wall. In the summer we would be upgraded to the real deal the top of grass field. Credit :google images Some students who didn’t like playing football would take advantage of the opportunity abandoned bags/coats while a game was in full swing the jokers would hide the items in the Sand pits or mount the items in the tennis court or on the netball hoops resulting in the challenge of retrieval and being late for a Lesson …. The FOOTBALL rules 1) The person who’s ball it was got to decide who plays. 2) No matter how many you are winning by the winner is always determined by “the next goal wins”. 3) The one who kicks it over gets it. 4) No offsides. 5) No referee. 6) When the owner of the ball gets pissed off its game over. 7) Bags and Jumpers for goals posts. 8) Is only a penalty when the keeper say it is. In primary school I was one of the best at sport however when I went to secondary school in the first week, I found out that I was by far NOT one of the best at sport. I understood that sport was an away to make friends quickly, the sports on offer at secondary school was different from primary school. You didn’t have to all do the same sport you got to do what you like and where good at. There was a rugby team which had four very good players. One of the good players was not me I was average as the game was new to me and I preferred football. The game strategy for Rugby was simple all we had to do was to pass the ball to them and they get the try’s leading us to a win! I think we went to the semi-final, but I might be wrong. The school also had a very good Cricket Team which I played for. Sports was my ambition, my dreams it all I wanted to do. At the start of secondary school my dream was to become a professional football player, and as such dedicated my time to sports. It seemed like I had a mad schedule Training football on Tuesdays after school for Shire Colts football team which would also have matches on Sundays. Rugby once a week at school. Westbury Wolves Football matches most Saturday and when not I would be found on the tennis court. When the football season would be over, I would play Cricket. I scored 24 goals in 10 matches for Westbury Wolves football team. I can't remember any 23 of the goals, I do remember one goal a volley outside of the box and the top corner. It was 32 years ago Since it has happened. So, it might be my head injury or just old age that I can't remember. Thanks to my friend who played in the same team who can recall the matches we played together over the years as we are still friends, He has taken great delight in telling me that I missed a penalty once 32 years ago . He loves to tell me that I missed that penalty that went over the bar and went into someone’s garden. Like Chris Waddle Italy 90 in the world cup semi-final. In the secondary outside of school on a weekend we play football for our respective teams, playing against each other in competition, only fun if my team won because come Monday mornings school the losing team on the weekend would not hear the end of it. In those days digital technology was not really part of our lives no mobiles phones and the internet, so we had to talk to each other the watch TV soaps like neighbours and home and away. I watch as much football on TV or listen to it on the radio and buy mostly football magazines. In the first year (year 7!) Some people had a locker. One or two people would try to pick the lock if unsuccessful in gaining access a gentle but powerful hit to the locker with something hard would suffice. On the rare occasion it made a small dent .As time went by the dent would get so big that you would need a new locker door this is something we learned . The older boys in year 11 (5th year) would try to sell dirty old magazines all in aid of learning business skills of course! if I can remember correctly, we also studied science, German, English, geography, history, maths, music, art, PE, it wasn’t all sports. All the classes were with same people for years. Sports allowed for greater mixing and making friends by the first Christmas of the first year nearly everyone had established their friends group and had also in classes sat with different people from Bristol primary schools. In secondary school I made friends for life, 33 years on these friends are still my strongest supporters and they know exactly how to lift me up. They have stood by me unconditionally in my darkest times the are there, in my best of times they are there too. I think when the wives and girlfriends are not looking or are away, we act like we are teenagers all over again. More on that later!