School Days

   SCHOOL DAYS
You might have loved them our hated them, but for me I had a mix bag when it came to school as I was really badly bullied. Picture this, you are walking down and around the school, you can’t make any friends that are your age but you are finding it easy to make friends that are younger then you.  You are also helping the teachers out, this is what I did. During my classes in year 7 and 8, I used to get things thrown at me like blue TAC or paper. I would get up from where I was sitting; tell the teacher who was throwing things at me and what they had thrown in my direction. The teacher would say to stop it and they would for a few minutes and then carry on.

During year 9 the same pretty much happened as per usual with things getting thrown at me, but this time the school started up peer support which helped a bit. Peer support helped me as it was students from the school that could help out and let the teachers know my problem. The final two years were hell for me, for example we planned a trip to Thorpe Park and we had a group photo taken, this photo got loaded on to the school’s main drive, which was great until one of the bullies got their hand on it and put a rat face on top of mine. This went around the school, he was showing people the picture and saying “we have rat in our class, it’s Alex Holland-Martin”, he would even showed the teachers as well.  I got so angry at this that I politely asked the teacher if I could just stand outside for bit to cool down as I used to get to support though out my school years and in the last couple of years the support asked the learning support department if I could get a time out pass where I can go out the room for five minutes to ten minutes this gave myself time to calm down before going back in too the classroom.

               

I had some good times before doing my GCSEs. I went on the school annual ski trip and this is something I will never forget skiing down the slops in Austria and having some crashes here and there, one crash I had was before the trip had even started. We had to go to a dry ski slop to do some practicing for the new people who have never went skiing and to learn how to ski. But before going to the dry ski slops we had to get changed at the school and one of the best PE teacher Mr Cowerly came in and said to me “Good Luck Alex” thanks for that Mr Cowerly. I can remember when we were at the place one of the people say? “Now we would like you to jump on your skis” when I heard this I was like you really want us to jump on our skis well ok don’t blame us if we end up in hospital with a broken leg or arm. It then came to my turn to jump I went down jump and then crashed quite heavily and heard people go “ohhh” some of the teachers came to me and one of the dry ski slops people to see if I was all right which I was.

After this off it was time to go to the snowy Austrian mountain and the ski resort of Nessfeild where we leant something’s like how to turn in snow plow position (having your skis in a V shape you near the bottom). One of the funniest crashes or moments I had was when I was a little too confident on my skis and was overtaking people in my group when I came tangled up with a girl called Naomi in my group we were both locked together in the snow plow going down the mountain and the only way out of this sticky mess was to go under her legs and carry on going and I couldn’t help but sort felt a bit embarrassed by this and also felt sorry for Naomi.

Then we had slalom race at the end of the trip and my group we went first I think and I think I was sixth in line and as I got near to the start of the race I got more and more excited and then it was my turn. The person in front of me took ages then I hear she was over the line and the person at the bottom of the mountain asks over the radio if I am ready, which I am, the person next to me starts counting down 3.2.1.... I went and did not hear “go” I skied down in the snow plow position (I felt at home with this) and skied past all of the gates and then I thought how far behind I was from the leader in my group. Quicker I went and then over then line stop look to see a time and couldn’t see anything at all on what my time was and then lunch.  During lunch one of my friends Luke Macgregor asked “where do you think you came?”

“Fourth I think but a top ten finish will be good"

After lunch we all got back together where one of the instructors came out and said our school name and asked us to follow him to little a podium that the children use after their races and my group went first all the names were read out and the top ten was next and my name had not been read out yet.

“In tenth place is .......” that will be me, no.

“In ninth place is .......” is it me, no.  Then the top five came up next and my name still has not be read out and then the top three and my name still not be read out and I thought no way have I came in the top three. third was read out, was it me who has finished in third no not me and then second that will be me, no  I had won my group I just laid back in the snow got all my thoughts together got up walked to the podium collected my certificate for coming in first got on the podium were I was given a gold medal I was so happy I felt like I was at the winter Olympics and won the gold for Great Britain and I wanted to go and talked to the TV people (none were there) and then it was off to the hotel to pack ready to go home and once on the coach I still had my medal on and had it on all the way back to the school.

Another funny moment I had was during an assembly where the person taking it need someone to help him straight away up goes my hand and I get chosen I walked up to the front of the year and I got given a whiteboard, a blindfold and a pen I was asked to draw a face while being blindfold this was going to be funny as I draw the face I could hear the year laughing at the end of it took off the blindfold and I could not help but laugh as well. I had also taken part in another assembly where we three of us me being one got given a shoe box we open it and inside we had won some sweets then we had the chance to gamble for something better I decided to gamble got given I another shoe box and won 50p not much but it was nothing. The others also gambled one won £2 (the jammy little git) and the other won a sock and the hall laughed.

Then the GCSEs came and they were hard for me as I struggled with my work not only with revision (which you should do when you are doing you GCSEs) and the fact that the lessons get repeated over and over again but all in all I did pass my

GCSEs with three GCSEs as the school and I thought it might be a good idea to see what it was like to go out to work for two days a week and had to do three GCSEs which I passed with 2 Es in Maths and English which was my weaker subjects and a D in Science this was because of some practical lesson we had but it was over and I had to leave and go to college and that is coming up soon.

For the people being bullied talk to some like I did it does help and see if

anything happens if it does not work speak about the person who is bullying to your head teacher they can sort it trust me on this one but don’t leave to yourself or keep it to yourself it makes it worse for later on in life I made this mistake and regretted it as well so please take it from me I know.

Apart from all of that the was one thing that I would like to say is this, we all have our favourite teachers from school. For me mine had to be my geoaprghy teacher Miss Hammond, she was really kind to me when I was at school. I can remember that when I had left school I went back and said hello to her that for me was really nice to see all my teacher from when I was at the school.