As the end of the year draws ever closer, I believe that the time has come for me to look back over the past months, weeks and days. What’s been good this year, and what’s not been so good. Starting back in January, the month that started the year of 2002.

Still during a time that could have been classed as good, beneath bad things were to happen in the month to come. But anyway, at the time, the new month things were good. January 3rd was the party, my party, members that I remember being there included myself, jack, edd, jay, rawson, jameson, shieldsy, danny g, lawrence and alan. Jameson did the brief of the evening, so I will not talk about that again. Overall it was a good, yet strange evening. We woke in a sea of confetti, peanuts and miniature sausages. The start of the year was now to commence.

A couple of days after the parteh, we were back at school where we started the final months of preparation for our GCSE examinations. These months seemed to go past very, very quickly. Coursework was being completed, although not always on time, time for friends was not widely available and some times we would find ourselves revising for these exams. I cannot really remember what happened from January up until the exams but whatever happened, it cannot have been that life changing as I would have remembered it.

So I think the exams started in like May / June time, I think it was 7 weeks of exams either in bulk or widely spread out. There were times that both occurred. I remember that a couple of people would come to my house, or I would go to there’s and we would get some last minute rushed revision in. 2 times I remember were when a number of us went back to shieldsys house and played on the Xbox, and had burger and chips. Revision was very limited as Halo brawls were taking place most of the time, these were followed by hardcore races on burnout, shields, jay and rawson got most violent during the games played.

After the final exam, myself and many other people got jobs. Many of the jobs were to be permanent weekend jobs, but some others only got them for the summer. The money from these jobs was to keep us going through the summer and for as long as we kept our jobs.

So the exams past by, and the summer was about to begin. July was days away and plans were being made for the rest of the ‘One Big Summer’. The early plans, as a group were to do such things as camping. The camping trip that has been written about went well except for some minor incidents e.g. going to 2 sites prior to stopping off at jacks house for the rest of the night.

Sometime around now there was an induction into sixth form. The first day of the induction was not particularly good. The second day was better but many people did not turn up because they were expecting more of the same. Overall no one understood the reason for coming in for an induction a month or so before we were to know whether or not anyone was going to have the grades needed to get in. To this date I believe no one knows why we came in to be ‘inducted’ when there was a chance that half the people may not have got the grades to get in.

Other trips included holidays to center parcs with the family, and with my second family, the Adams family to lanzarote. These were champion and shall be remembered as highlights of the year.

A couple of weeks after arriving back from the wee isles about the north coast of Africa, I was soon whisked away by the Kings to some place called Alton towers. We stopped off in a travel lodge where breakfast and tea was spent at the little chef. Many cups of coffee were given from me to jay of which he was not happy about because he did not sleep for many hours at all. He became knackered and could not handle the quick pace of Alton towers.

Prior to the trip to Alton Towers exam results arrived. The day that the results arrived myself, rawson and shields headed up to the school to pick up our results. We discussed what we would so if we were to fail to get the grades to get into sixth form. Ideas included going onto do a course at Suffolk College about public services or something. The journey from rawson’s to the school seemed to take forever. We hit the main road and were nearly there. On the way we passed many people who had received their results. They seemed ok. We got there and queued up for the envelopes that were to contain, if you wish, our futures. Each of us received our envelopes and barely managed to open them up. We each went our ways and opened them. The news was good, we all received the grades that were determine were our lives were going next. Sixth form.

We celebrated for the rest of the day and night. Barbeques were had and drink was drunk. We were all very happy about the news we had been given. We knew what was coming next, at least another year of education. This was ok though, we didn’t have to apply to other places, we could just get on with what we had to do ready for the start of term. After the celebrations, a day or two later people started doing work that was set to do over the summer ready for the start of the term.

Summer came to a close; work was being done right down to the final day. Much money had been spent on getting these books for ‘A’ Level and new equipment was purchased ready for the newest education year yet. Remembering that this was no longer classed as ‘school’, the pupils of the sixth form including myself did not have to wear a uniform anymore. This change was most appreciated as for the first time in the whole of our educational lifetimes we could wear something that we wanted to wear, not what we had to wear.

So a day or two before the official start of sixth form we had to come in and register that we would be attending sixth form and sign on the line. We signed the forms and conformed the subjects that we were to be doing, and in the next day or two we were to be back in full time education. We took this as a good thing.

The first day of education started, not much happened, it was a pretty easygoing time. Many laughs were had during the times of break and lunch. The atmosphere was very laid back between all. The first days all seemed to be going by rather well. This was soon to change. Many people came to a decision that the whole further education was not as good as first thought. People were thinking about going onto to do other courses and some into a full time job.

We all made it to half term and peoples thoughts about leaving were slowly being put behind them. Things were getting better; it was just a case of settling in. Through the half term break we all got together for what was to be whitlLAN. This night was the first time we all saw jack for about 2 weeks as he had taken a week off to think about whether or not he wanted to stay on a sixth form or not. He arrived at the door of Steve’s and happiness was all round. We had a large quantity of drink on offer and jack was drinking within minutes of arriving. Within thirty to forty minutes jack was out cold, and things got a little worrying. For a couple of hours, people looked after jack whilst he was out cold. The decision was made to get him home. He left and the party continued.

The half term break came to an end and education was back again. This term things were going to change for a few people. Jack was the first to drop a subject; he dropped PE and for a whole week or so managed to get away with only doing 2 subjects, Business and Computing. He then had to start a new subject this was media. I believe that media is the best subject that I am doing at the moment and was a great choice for jack. Jay then decided to drop a subject, he dropped tech. I then dropped a subject as well, the subject I dropped was computing.

So now up to the present date of me writing this article: Friday, 22 November 2002 all is going well with just the 3 subjects. There are still 5 weeks to go of this year and many things may still occur. As things stand right now though, jack’s still at the sixth form, shields has recently dropped chemistry and all the other people from what I know still have 4 subjects intact. I just hope that next year brings many good thing like this year has so far. Plans have already been made for next year including the ‘Trip de la Paris’ for business studies and of course, the locally famous ‘Austria 2003 trip’. I look forward to the next year.

Current status of things happening so far: All is Well and Good.

Article Written by Ryan