Divine Seers

2. Ethan

Today was my first assembly. Assemblies were large gatherings for the entire year group to get together with our Head of Year. We discussed all things school and education related. At Albany our assemblies were much smaller as there were less people in my year group.

Here at Lowlands High, there were almost 350 students in one year group which was absolutely massive compared to what I was previously used to. However, the large number of students and the huge main hall made me very excited about what was to come.

I entered the Grosvenor Hall which was the main hall at the front of our school building. The hall was very long with a very high ceiling. On the top right wall, there was a large board with previous students' names who had moved on to some of the best universities in the country like Oxford and Cambridge.

I hoped that one day my name would be up on that board. I knew that this was my opportunity to work hard and gain the grades I needed to achieve. Albany would have been a good school for me to achieve the grades at but my father had a job transfer to a new office and there's nothing we could do, but I was determined that I would get the grades at Lowlands so that I could be the successful student I wanted to be.

The other students in my year group began entering the hall class by class. I recognised some of the students from my English class walking into the hall. Molly and Megan walked into together and both smiled at me which made me feel a lot better. Many of the other students walked in talking and gossiping.

I found this really strange as back at Albany we had to walk into the hall class by class in silence with every part of our uniform intact. Over here, there were students walking into the hall with their blazer tied around their waist, their skirt stuck into their blazer and boys with trousers rolled up after having played a long football match. As the students entered, the teachers tried their hardest to quieten them down.

Suddenly a group of girls started pointing at me and laughing. It was very strange. I kept wondering what they were pointing and laughing at? It made me feel very self-conscious. I looked down at my shirt to see if it was undone. I looked behind me at the people sitting near me but they were talking quietly amongst themselves so it must've been me they were laughing at.

I looked up at the girls again and they were still looking at me and laughing. I kept praying that they weren't laughing at me because I really didn't want to become a target for bullying. As soon as I turned my head away from them, Mrs Chesham our Head of Year walked up on to the stage and everyone started clapping.

'Welcome to a new term Year 11. It's great to see all of you after a long time,' said Mrs Chesham in a proud voice. 'I apologise for not having had this assembly a few weeks earlier but as you may be aware, I've had a few personal issues that I've had to deal with and I was unable to organise a gathering earlier.'

Mrs Chesham was dressed in a grey chequered dress with an electric blue beaded necklace around her neck. She had beautiful dark red hair which she clipped up in a bun. She had a large clipboard in her hand with lots of sheets, which made me realise that this assembly was going to be a long one.

'Year eleven, this year is a very important year and we all know why. One of the most important years of your life. At the end of this year all of you will be taking your final GCSE exams which every single one of you has been studying very hard for,' said Mrs Chesham in a very serious manner.

Looking around at the rest of the students, some of them were still chatting amongst themselves, which made me wonder if any of them were actually studying whilst at school.

'I would just like to let you know that in order to help you with your exams, we have organised extra revision classes for each of you to attend in the evenings. You are also welcome to meet with your subject teachers at any time to discuss how to improve your grades,' said Mrs Chesham in an optimistic tone.