Newbies

Today was secondary transfer day for schools in our area.  The day when all the girls coming to our school in September come for a taster day.  They look so small {even to me, but by Christmas they will all be taller than me I bet} and nervous and excited.  The routines of secondary school that we take for granted are all so new.  Having to change rooms for each lesson instead of staying in the same desk all day is a big surprise.  Our school is over 100 years old so has many buildings that have been built on over the years so for some lessons you can have quite a trek going from indoors to outdoors, across a tennis court, round the back of the gym, past the swimming pool and dance studio...  A map of the school is one of the first things they are given.  I've worked there for over ten years and there are still some parts of the school I've never been to!

Very soon, their parents will be spending vast quantities of money on new uniform.  Several sizes too big, because they will grow into them - we've all been there haven't we?  There were some pieces of PE equipment I bought for my daughter that were never, ever worn (like mother like daughter)!  Our uniform is not particularly appealing.  It's brown.  Brown skirt and blazer with a brown and white striped blouse.  Brown socks, brown shoes, brown hair accessories.  We considered changing it a few years ago and asked for students' opinions.  Strangely enough, Facebook groups were started from ex-students calling for us to 'save our brown uniform'.  The same girls who moaned about it for 7 years while they were there!  I think that complaining about your uniform and trying to rebel by not wearing it properly is all part of the rite of passage.  Our skirts used to be calf length pleated kilts.  So the girls started wearing them longer and longer until they were floor length.  We changed to knee length as safety was becoming an issue, and now they roll them up as short as they can.  Do they not realise that by turning over the waistband half a dozen times, they are actually adding about 6" to their waistlines?  We also have to smile at the orange fake tans of the Year 10 girls.  One day they will look back on their school photos and say 'what was I thinking?'.   Our reception desk looks like a counter of Boots the Chemist as we regularly have girls sent down to remove nail varnish or makeup.  'But I'm hardly wearing any' they cry as the cotton wool pad soaked in make up remover turns from pristine white to a muddy brown.  'These are my natural eyelashes' they insist - I don't think so!  No extremes of hairstyle the home/school agreement says.  Extreme is obviously a matter of opinion.  The latest thing here is 'dip dying' where the top of your head is brown/blonde and the ends are coloured.  I don't think anyone could successfully argue the case that purple tips to the end of your hair is 'natural'.

Yes, you look at those little girls, aged 11, keen to move onto High School.  Desperate to fit in, and promising to follow the rules.  Yet you know that in a few years time they will be pushing boundaries and no matter how much we chuckle about it in the office, we all know were were EXACTLY the same.  Do you remember 'adapting' your school uniform? 
Can you believe that me and my three friends here are all wearing the same school uniform?