Front Line

Front Line - Chapter 8 - Year 6

Front Line

Chapter 8 – Year 6

  Thus the final year of primary school had begun. So much had happened up until this point, things I’ve not even mentioned merely because there’s so much to pack in, in such a small space. Despite it being my final year, when stepping into the playground for the first time that year, it still didn’t hit me that this time next year I wouldn’t be here, and everything would be different. Things on this day were the same as they always were, after having my first day of school picture taken, I sat down on the bench I always sat on whilst I waited for my best friend Kieran to arrive.

 When you entered into the last year of primary school, or top of the school if you were actually a student, you felt on top of the world, dominant even. You felt like you ran the school and whatever you said, goes. Being top dog meant a lot to so many in my year, not that it made any difference with me, I was still the runt of the year despite so many I thought that were worse than me, oh well. I met with Kieran and we spent fifteen minutes, or thereabouts, talking and playing before we filed in for our final class change.

  My teacher this year was a combination of things, she had a boyfriend and was single so she had a more kind-hearted nature than the married teachers I had previously, but also she had a sharp tongue on her for when she needed, should it ever arrive, to discipline someone. Thankfully I was only that person a few times, even then I still didn’t know what I did wrong, most of the time it would be me getting the blame for someone else’s actions, which I never bothered to query against, I just didn’t see the point. Coming into this year brought many freedoms with it, Miss Weir as that was my teachers’ name was, allowed us to share a draw to keep all our things in it with one of our classmates. I was yet again with my other friend Kieran and he and I shared the same drawer. Mostly it was his things in there but then again I didn’t have much TO keep in there, just my schoolbook and that was it.

  Starting from the first Friday of that week, we resumed the annual Friday spelling test. This has been happening since Year 2 as far as I can remember, every Friday we would have to be tested on the ten words we were given to learn how to spell throughout the week. I do have to admit, I did cheat a few times but overall I was an excellent speller with no need to cheat. I would always get 10/10 and once in the year I was asked to spell ‘necessary’ in front of the whole school at a school assembly I won an award at, it was nerve-wracking for me but I managed to do it and it made me feel so good when I did it.

  Of course there was one thing that never changed, in Year 5 we had to take SAT’s, looking back on it, it wasn’t a hard thing but for me who did better in class than in an exam it was a hard thing. Around the time they came around this year, it was the same procedure. We would learn before assembly, during and after things for the tests which people like me had to do extra studying for. I was a bright child, but when it came to exams, that’s where I dimmed as the shining star I thought I was, and others overtook me and got the results that I had been wanting to hear.

  One of the things I did enjoy most about the school was when an elderly man, which to this day still puzzles me as why he had a connection with my primary school, came in and told us stories of things he had done or stories from the Bible. Thanks to my imagination being so vivid, his stories would often feel so real to me that I could picture it as if it were real, always ending them with the lord’s prayer which again to this day I still do not know fully which I should really. I learned not so long ago that he is still alive, he’s on two walking sticks instead of his faithful one, but he’s getting around just fine and it’s a pleasant thought to think that he’s still with us.

  So much happened in my final year, thankfully most of the memories I can still recall are happier ones. Me and my best friend Kieran would always play this silly little game, we would go into the toilets of our genders and fill our mouths with water, come out and look at each other and if we were lucky we made it back to a sink in time to spit the water out laughing. It was a simple, maybe even stupid game, but it brought no end of smiles to our faces no matter how many times we played it. The simple things like that is what made us best friends back then, things of course are different now but the simple things were the things we often treasured the most.

  The highlight of this year had to be when we went on our Year 6 trip, this year it would be our turn to go to Drayton Manor, the best theme park around that was the closest one to get to. Every class in Year 6 went to this one, we didn’t get separated by class so I was able to ask my best friend Kieran if I could stay with him, and of course he said yes. Once we got there we had to be told the dos and don’ts, we had to stay with the teacher we were assigned to until 12pm, then until the time we had to head back to the coach, we could do what we want. I stayed with Kieran for the most part but he went off with some of his other friends at one point, leaving me and the other Kieran to wander down and get lost at the wrong end of the zoo part. It was a fun day overall, I have left with me some fond memories of my first time at a theme park.

  All that glittered was not gold that year, around a month before we were due to leave we had to practise for our ‘leaver’s assembly’ which every year 6 leaving class had to do. When the time came around for the real thing, my parents couldn’t make it but I wasn’t sad. Dad had to work and mum wasn’t well, so I sat there after walking into the song ‘The Final Countdown’ by Europe. We sung a few songs, shared some memories and watched a video compilation on the big screen of what we did that year, again I didn’t cry but what happened after this I most surely would.

  The day before we left, it was Thursday night and we were all invited to a leaver’s dance/prom/party, the hall had been decorated with quite impressive decorations. All the girls were in dresses and small heals, I was in a shirt, skirt and flip-flops. I felt a little underdressed but it’s all we could afford. I remember glow sticks, bubble machines and thumping music, but the saddest part was literally when it was over. Only there and then did I learn that my best friend would not be with me on the last day of our primary school, after being together for so long we would not complete this final step together, I would do it alone. He was going on holiday for the summer that night, so the next day when everything was all said and done, I was less than happy than I should have been, but equally as happy to be spending the summer doing what I wanted before my first year of secondary school began.