When I first arrived at this school, I was quite bewildered. I didn't know very many people, and after spending the night here I was so homesick that I felt like walking home! Once I got used to being in a boarding school, I began to feel more self-responsible, but I was still reluctant to talk to anybody. My first sight of my second former was when I was unpacking my suitcase and I heard a knock on the window. Everybody groaned when they saw him, but I stood still. When he walked up to me, I started staring at him with a grin across my face. I was introduced to Billy, my second former and then finished unpacking my case.

I am now beginning to enjoy life here, and someday I hope to become C.S.P., but that will be a long time from now. The traditions of this school are very good and I enjoy the Sunday parades, except that the blues uniform is a bit stiff at the collar.

SECOND FORM:

The change from the first form to the second form is not as drastic as many people think, but the changes that are made alter your way of life. When you become a second former, you find that a lot more responsibility falls onto you. In our house we have dorm and house duty boys, who check all the fatigues in the mornings and make sure that the house is running well. As you gain more responsibility you can also gain the trust of the housemaster and other masters, because they have had a year to judge your characters and can see if you are responsible or not. As well as duties around the house, the second formers also have to organise the house sports teams.

There is not a lot more academic work in the second form, but I think that the attitudes of the teachers have changed, some seem more harsh than last year, but others seem more humorous. I find that the sports are also more fun now, because we have a much wider choice.

I expect going into the third form will bring more changes.

THIRD FORM:

Many of the present third form must have sat in their bedrooms during the last summer holidays and thought "Oh, no, the senior school"! They probably envisaged beatings, fatigues, bullying and enough sides to even break down a computer.

When I think about it, the third form isn't really a rest centre, but it's not all that bad! For a start all the rumours about being beaten every day were a lot of nonsense. There were a lot of second formers last year who believed all this, and I was one of them! But some of the stories are just too far fetched, and anyone who believed them must have been very gullible.

I can remember one tale about being given thirty cups and being told to fill them all with coffee. Most second formers dreaded having to bring mountains of coffee back with them! It is true that sometimes you make the odd coffee, but that isn't too bad at all. I think the senior school is O.K., I just feel sorry for those juniors who are given the wrong impression about it all.