So many posts on Facebook today from parents wishing their Year 11 kids a great last day at school! Can you imagine or remember that feeling? The very last day of school! Wow! Even if they are carrying on with education, it will be their choice, and they won't be told to do it so today, on the cusp of freedom, they feel invincible! They think the world is their oyster and, I say as a 46 year old mother, they have no idea that they are saying goodbye to some of the best years of their lives!
I loved my secondary school. Not the work, or teachers obviously and not living so far away that I had to get a taxi that other kids called a hearse each day. No none of that. But the social side, the friendships, the 'clubs', the boys discovering girls discovering boys or each discovering whatever they fancied, the familiarity, the feeling that we fifth years were top dogs in our own lounge and canteen space. It was safe, it was familiar, it had been home for 5 years when we grew so much, learned so much and developed almost beyond recognition. Saying goodbye to all that, entering an unknown world and walking away from such comfort was hard for me, and I really did feel sad in my last school days.
Leaving primary school was equally terrifying for me and though there is another half term before year 6 pupils fly their nest, they too will either be revelling or dreading that great big next step. I went from a tiny village school in the middle of the countryside, with just 12 in my year, to a large secondary in a place I'd never heard without most of my friends.
Whilst our primary school kids were on a nature rambles, others were far more streetwise playing kiss catch! It was a culture shock to say the least! Worse still, most of my friends were going to a high school with a black and grey uniform where you could buy the skirts in any style from any fashionable shop - I was going to a school were there was only one shop you could buy the PURPLE uniform that included an A-line skirt, itchy blazer and purple and green tie. Oh I couldn't wait to get into that gear!
I hate that, now as a 46 year old, I love to see the kids in that purple uniform and think it looks lovely! 11 year old me would HATE me today!
Little did I know that by the end of my secondary school years, I'd be rocking that purple little number and loving my days wearing it. GSCE's done, in love with Craig, accepted at college, working washing pots at the weekend earning my own money, and my hair finally corkscrew permed! Happy Days.
To all those Year 11s leaving school today may your future days be filled with love, laughter and all your dreams come true! Wishing you fond memories of your school years forever more.