Bunny’s first week of Secondary School

Bunny has just finished her first week of secondary school. I say week, it was only actually three days, but nevertheless. As my oldest child, this is all completely new territory to me and the only comparisons I can make, are with my own secondary school experiences. I went to a very strict public school in Dorset and my memories of secondary school are mostly negative. I had problems with bullies in year 7 and 8. I wasn’t very good at sport. The problems with bullies made me less willing to learn. A teacher with a grudge against me caused some issues. And in the end, I was so anti-authority that I ended up not bothering to do my homework or my coursework at all and finding ways to rebel against the teachers. I felt that secondary school was more like prison and often I thought I’d have probably preferred juvenile prison to secondary school. I am obviously hoping, that Bunny has a much more positive experience of secondary school than me. I hope I can help her navigate through secondary school and the horrific hormones of adolescence, based on where I went wrong. 

A positive start to secondary school

Bunny started off more excited than nervous about her first week of secondary school. She’d been on a taster day last year and loved it. It was positive. I was excited for her. On her first day, she was up, showered and dressed bright and early. When she left the house, dressed immaculately in her new uniform (which swamps her) I wondered where the years had gone. She had her new backpack, full of new stationery, new PE kit, bus pass, her mobile phone and lunch money, and sported a big excited smile on her face. She ran to the bus stop, even though she had quarter of an hour to get there and it’s only just around the corner. I spent the day looking forward to when she came home to tell me all about her day.

When secondary school is not what it seems

But the happy excited bubbly Bunny, was not the Bunny who came home from secondary school. She came home with a defeated look on her face and tears in her eyes and shouted on her way through the door, “I hate that school. I hate the adults and I hate the children”.

For the next thirty minutes, I listened to Bunny ranting about her first day at her new school.

The bus to school had been fine, and by the sounds of it, the most part of the day had gone well. She had ten friends from her primary school there and four friends from gymnastics. There were a few children from her old school and she’s made some new friends too. Bunny doesn’t make new friends easily so this is a big feat for her. She’d enjoyed her Drama and Music lessons.

So why all the ranting about her first day?

First and foremost, the issue that had her in tears, was the school bus. There were apparently two adults in high vis jackets that wouldn’t let her on the bus and told her to walk home. They made her walk out of the gate which leads away from the school, meaning she then had to cut across the bit where she isn’t supposed to walk, in order to get on the bus. Once on the bus, a boy kept touching her hair and irritating her. She managed to get all the way home before the tears welled up in her eyes. She is already much stronger than me. At her age, I wasn’t able to hold back my tears if I was upset. 

Other rants about her first week of secondary school included that she had RE, she was given homework on her first day and “the roast chicken was BONE DRY. Like even with gravy it was SO dry!”. 

Spoilt much? It’s the curse of being a bloggers daughter, she’s helped with so many restaurant and hotel reviews that she’s basically a food critic. Move on over Alex Polizzi, Bunny could be after your job!

Also the head teacher “talks too much” and a ‘short assembly’ was really long. To be fair, I can empathise with that one after sitting in one of her parent assemblies. She repeated the words “growth mindset” so many times that I would have quite liked to throw my growth mindset at her!

I’m kind of hoping that if Bunny’s headteacher ever finds this blog post, that she has a decent sense of humour?

The rest of Bunny’s first week of secondary school

Days two and three at school were a little better, but in general, there was a lot of negativity from bunny about her first week of secondary school. The rest of the week brought rants about two more sets of homework, another irritating person on the school bus and the fact the French teacher speaks in French. Let’s not forget the lack of availability of sausage rolls in the cafeteria… I mean that is like the end of the world when you are eleven years old.

Enjoyable subjects came in the form of history, textiles, art and design and PE, despite getting hit in the nose with a basketball.

The one thing that REALLY made her smile though, was when she told us about the boy who asked for her number…

… And so it begins!