First Impressions
I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, I was petrified! I had been to the school a few times before on open evenings so knew the jist of it. Over the entire summer holiday before September I didn't think I would get the GCSE's to go so didn't mentally prepare myself as fully as I should have done. Actually unpacking was dreadful, I remember my room being so hot ( I think I arrived on one of the hottest days of the year) and I felt dizzy which I had never experienced before. I shared a room, which I didn't mind too much because I had to share a room with my sister at home. However I knew some students were not keen with this arrangement.
I shared a study with another female called Cat and she was lovely and very arty. Cat also had a great singing voice and could play the guitar. The whole wall of the study was covered in magazine covers! I remember watching Charlies Angels with Cat and another girl in the sixth form on the first evening which was fun and got me settled.
One of my many rooms I was in. Novelty bed covers were the norm
hence, my Groovy Chick bed cover XD
I shared a study with another female called Cat and she was lovely and very arty. Cat also had a great singing voice and could play the guitar. The whole wall of the study was covered in magazine covers! I remember watching Charlies Angels with Cat and another girl in the sixth form on the first evening which was fun and got me settled.
I quickly realised as I settled into school life that academically I wasn't strong at all. Literally everybody in my sixth form had a string of A*'s or A's which was practically unheard of in my state school. These students were so smart GCSEs were a doddle to them.
In addition the standard was so much higher at private school. I had taken A Level English Literature and even though I got an A in the subject at GCSE I was so behind the others in terms of what they knew and their writing ability. Some students essays in the upper sixth were at the standard equivalent to their degree. To add to this, I stupidly decided to take A Level Biology and Chemistry because at GCSE I loved science however I just wasn't at the level needed for A- Level. It was too big a step- up. It was awful mix at a time where I was really missing being at home, being in a new place and with people so much smarter than me.
Daily Life
A typical day at boarding school consists of being woken up at half seven to get changed for breakfast at eight. Boys and girls ate their breakfast separately. Form time would be at quarter to nine/ nine o'clock. We then had 'meeting' which is essentially prayer and reflection for 15 minutes (the school was a religious school) and then we would start lessons. We would have break which I seem to remember being able to eat juice and biscuits. We would have another set of lessons until lunch. A few more lessons in the afternoon and then free time until about 6pm when we would have tea and then we would have an hour and a half 'prep' which is essentially time to do your homework. After prep it was free time until we had to sign in (which was at different times for different years) the sign in times was generally half an hour before your bed time.
I found prep quite hard to deal with. As I was essentially only studying for two A- Levels (three if you counted General Studies) therefore to study every single night for an hour and a half was too much. Sometimes all I wanted to do was to have a break and do nothing all night. You couldn't get away with it as you had a teacher go around and check you were in your study. The internet was crap at my school therefore you could never stream anything. However it was fun as when I wasn't studying to chat with my mates.
The Boarding Side
After the initial shock I really began to enjoy boarding. I found being around like minded people everyday and doing something different was good fun as I would have just watched TV at home. A typical room consisted of two beds, a sink, two desks, two sets of shelves and two wardrobes. The girls were separated from the boys and you could only access the boarding school by punching in a code in the door. The boarding house was run by a house mistress and a matron and in the week there was a team of around five staff members who were also teachers in the school taking it in turns to be on duty. The staff members did a lot for us. They put on parties for individual students birthdays, had film nights, had parties such as 'Bring back the summer', were there to listen to us whinging and really helped us all round. All of the girls were really nice and we all tend to stick together.
On the Saturday mornings, we had a variety of choices on how to spend the day. Sixth former's could either have prep (homework) in the studies or take part in a variety of activities. There tended to be lots of sports activities such as badminton and basketball and art activities. Again like the prep at night it was frustrating at times having to do something on a Saturday morning as sometimes all I wanted to do was sleep!
The afternoons were ours however and I spent them either chilling at school, swimming in the schools pool (which really wasn't glam as it sounds!) or shopping. Sometimes there were school trips, ones I remember going on were to the Trafford Centre in Manchester for some shopping and ice skating in Sheffield. On Sunday's we would have to go to a church service in the morning and then the afternoon was free. The school community was really good. I didn't find the sixth former's to be cliquey and everyone was friendly.
That concludes my first post on boarding school life! Did you go to boarding school? If you didn't would you have liked to go?
In addition the standard was so much higher at private school. I had taken A Level English Literature and even though I got an A in the subject at GCSE I was so behind the others in terms of what they knew and their writing ability. Some students essays in the upper sixth were at the standard equivalent to their degree. To add to this, I stupidly decided to take A Level Biology and Chemistry because at GCSE I loved science however I just wasn't at the level needed for A- Level. It was too big a step- up. It was awful mix at a time where I was really missing being at home, being in a new place and with people so much smarter than me.
Daily Life
A typical day at boarding school consists of being woken up at half seven to get changed for breakfast at eight. Boys and girls ate their breakfast separately. Form time would be at quarter to nine/ nine o'clock. We then had 'meeting' which is essentially prayer and reflection for 15 minutes (the school was a religious school) and then we would start lessons. We would have break which I seem to remember being able to eat juice and biscuits. We would have another set of lessons until lunch. A few more lessons in the afternoon and then free time until about 6pm when we would have tea and then we would have an hour and a half 'prep' which is essentially time to do your homework. After prep it was free time until we had to sign in (which was at different times for different years) the sign in times was generally half an hour before your bed time.
Me with some old friends playing
with the outdoor chess set
I found prep quite hard to deal with. As I was essentially only studying for two A- Levels (three if you counted General Studies) therefore to study every single night for an hour and a half was too much. Sometimes all I wanted to do was to have a break and do nothing all night. You couldn't get away with it as you had a teacher go around and check you were in your study. The internet was crap at my school therefore you could never stream anything. However it was fun as when I wasn't studying to chat with my mates.
The Boarding Side
After the initial shock I really began to enjoy boarding. I found being around like minded people everyday and doing something different was good fun as I would have just watched TV at home. A typical room consisted of two beds, a sink, two desks, two sets of shelves and two wardrobes. The girls were separated from the boys and you could only access the boarding school by punching in a code in the door. The boarding house was run by a house mistress and a matron and in the week there was a team of around five staff members who were also teachers in the school taking it in turns to be on duty. The staff members did a lot for us. They put on parties for individual students birthdays, had film nights, had parties such as 'Bring back the summer', were there to listen to us whinging and really helped us all round. All of the girls were really nice and we all tend to stick together.
One of the many day trips away, this one was
in the Peak District
I had two wardrobes in one of my rooms therefore
I used the spare one to keep all non-refrigerated ingredients
for a charity bake sale
Playing pool in the common room
On the Saturday mornings, we had a variety of choices on how to spend the day. Sixth former's could either have prep (homework) in the studies or take part in a variety of activities. There tended to be lots of sports activities such as badminton and basketball and art activities. Again like the prep at night it was frustrating at times having to do something on a Saturday morning as sometimes all I wanted to do was sleep!
Signs for one of the boarding houses' many parties
Great Gardens where I used to go for a walk
The afternoons were ours however and I spent them either chilling at school, swimming in the schools pool (which really wasn't glam as it sounds!) or shopping. Sometimes there were school trips, ones I remember going on were to the Trafford Centre in Manchester for some shopping and ice skating in Sheffield. On Sunday's we would have to go to a church service in the morning and then the afternoon was free. The school community was really good. I didn't find the sixth former's to be cliquey and everyone was friendly.
That concludes my first post on boarding school life! Did you go to boarding school? If you didn't would you have liked to go?
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