Big School!

   Moving up to Senior School held no fears for him, it was just more of the same in a different place!  He was still in the bottom set; still good at sport, still fairly popular and still couldn’t give a stuff for school rules. He had a new blazer badge, was in a new set of buildings, just up the road from the other part of the school, had new teachers, although you would never have known it and was in the attic!

It seemed strange that those who needed most support by the fact they were in the lowest set, were given the worst surroundings and were packed away in a classroom at the top of this old house, all we had was a window out onto the roof; you had to approach it via a long winding wooden staircase, so at least you could hear people approaching, which came in handy at times!

He was now twelve, nearly thirteen, and had built up a reputation, not only amongst his pals as a good “sport”, someone to have a go and laugh with, but also amongst the Staff as being, as one teacher put it, “Thick but decent!” Now that’s quite important as although he wasn’t thick, he hadn’t yet caught the fire of learning, that would come later; but to be thought of as decent seemed to him good as most, but not all, teachers saw him as OK and he could settle for that.

In the Junior school he had had a foray into the Scouts, it seemed like a good idea but lasted less than a term as he found it boring, especially as most of his mates were not in it but mainly because he had to wear a uniform, more of that later, and it was on a Saturday afternoon and that was not on! His Saturday afternoons would be filled with Matches, Rugby, Hockey and Cricket, from now on, a much better proposition.

Life in the upper echelons began slowly; he would have assembly, and wondered what the point was? Go to lessons, then Break, and a sneak to the bushes for a fag, more lessons, lunch, maybe another ciggie and a run around, usually football using a tennis ball, more lessons and finally home. The journey home on the bus took well over an hour and initially IG was with him and wouldn’t let him take his cap off until they crossed the border, which was the river. This was either negotiated via the Ferry, if he was alone as it took longer and he enjoyed the fresh air and the sights or, more commonly, via the Underground Train. Then it was another bus journey of about fifty minutes before a walk from the Bus Stop home. Quite a marathon and plenty of time to get into mischief!

The problem was that IG was in the higher stream, was good at exams and never got into trouble; whilst he was in the bottom stream, hated exams and, well you get the picture! He had gone to this, a fee paying school, because his Uncle had gone there and his brother before him, so people expected him to be clever too! If he had counted the times he was told,” Why aren’t you like your brother?” he would have wasted a great deal of time! But he wasn’t he was what he was and quite happy with that but people, especially Teachers want to compartmentalise you. Anyway, that’s why he had to keep his cap on until they were out of sight!  So day followed day and most of the time he kept his nose clean or at least wasn’t caught!
But in some ways, this was the lull before the storm and, as he found his feet, both in and out of school, things were about to change….