Front Line

Front Line - Chapter 2 - Reception

Front Line

Chaper Two – Reception

  Much like playgroup, primary school was a whole new anomaly waiting to be explored. I can’t remember the summer between leaving playgroup and starting primary school, but what will never leave my memory is my first day of school. Luckily once again this wasn’t a far commute from home, on the other hand it felt like it was ‘far enough’, I was such a clingy child looking back on it. I wouldn’t want to go and do anything at any venue, simply because I would be away from my mother, could you blame me? I didn’t want to leave my only source of comfort.

  The day soon came around when I had no choice but to leave my parents, the first day of school had arrived. Mixed feelings ran through me as I was dressed in my dark blue skirt, shirt and cardigan. I was both nervous to go to into a new environment but also excited to see what this new environment would hold for me. We all have to go through this at some point, so there’s no trying to run away from it. My parents drove me up into the car park opposite the school; it was a blue Ford escort if I remember correctly. The back seat went across the whole of the car facing the traffic behind, man I loved that car and I strangely miss it, the novelty of being just that little different was what I loved. My mother took my hand once I was out of the car; dad locked it up and joined us at the small zebra crossing to the other side of the street.

  Once inside the staff car park we waited to be let inside the school grounds, my parents having seen the whole school before already knew what I was about to see, however I had to wait until they had gone before I got my chance to see it. It was a simple place, the infant playground consisted no more than some wooden animals you could sit and play on, and a thin, flimsy fence marking out the perimeter of the cemented playground before the infant grass field behind the playground. Surely they must have had more they could have offered than this? But this being a lesser known primary school, their budget looking back wasn’t bound to be much.

  We were taken inside once the small gate had opened, later did I know the school was shaped like a pixel key but the section of the school in which I would spend my first year was not shaped like that inside. In each section of the school there was a main room in which two years shared, the reception year’s main room seemed big when I was little but if I visited now it would seem less so. Details on how it was set out are sketchy but I can remember painting easels in the top right of the room, the desk in the far right, before that was racks where we could store our coats and bags. Each peg marked with a picture so you knew which peg was yours, I was the star peg, I loved stars. As you stood facing the blackboard at the front of the room to the left was a long red sliding door, that’s where the second of the two ‘Red unit’ as the doors were all red, were situated. Once in that room it was very long, one end housed the books and a place to sit, the other was where all the small tables and one super old computer was placed. I remember distinctly showing my mother how to use this game on the computer; she of course pretended not to know how it worked, just so I could have the pleasure of completing something by myself. Totally sweet of her if you ask me. My dad at this point was talking to my reception teacher, Mrs Doris.

  The rest of my first day was much a blur as most of my early life was overall. However that day I met someone I was sure I would know for the rest of my life. He ended up being my best friend for a total of 11 years before, well you’ll hear about that later on. His name was Kieran, I had accidentally bumped into him as to this day, I’m a bit of a klutz. We spent literally all of our time together when we could; he was in the other red unit class. It was fair to say that we were pretty inseparable for two people that had only just met that September, never imagining that the road ahead was longer than what was pre-meditated.

  That first year actually taught me quite a lot, for being a year that would introduce you for mainstream education from the next year on. We spent our time for the first few months just settling into the new environment and around Christmas time there would be a calendar with the dates of December on them in which a small piece of chocolate cold be placed within. We never spent the whole of December in school but when my birthday came around, on December 9th, I was lucky to get the chocolate. Something so small as that filled my little heart with joy and happiness as I was the only person to have a birthday in December, I felt truly special.

  New Year soon came around and we were back in school. The following term pretty much carried on the same as the one before it. The horrible memory of the reception Christmas show still fresh in my memory when I walked in the door. I had to play the bare Christmas tree no one wanted, I was shy and never bothered to look at the crowd, I regret not looking now. I’ve been shy ever since. For the rest of the year we were taught various things, the alphabet and how to structure basic words thanks to a programme called Letterland, I loved that show. Also a show called ‘Come Outside’ which had to be my all-time favourite of my childhood. But not all of my first year was all rainbows and smiles, most of it from what I can remember involved myself crying and feeling not part of the rest of the year.

  I was one of the few to get bullied; it was a small school after all. I was the only girl in that year that wasn’t liked. I would be called silly names like ‘big ears’, all because my ears grew a little faster than my head, and such other things as ‘picky nose girl’, ‘ugly’ and ‘freak’. There would be other names hurled at me at various points of the year, why me out of all the girls I don’t know, I guess it was because I chose to be independent and think for myself instead of becoming part of the herd and being a singular brain cell. I didn’t stand up to them of course, I was a wimp and I kept it all to myself. With the odd outburst of tears where I told my mother and dad everything that had happened, there wasn’t much that could be done as it was petty kids calling petty names. Not that they would know how it would affect me in how I would turn out.

  I was more than thankful when the end of term came, yes I would be sad because I wouldn’t see Kieran for the whole summer but it would mean an end to the bullying and upset for just over a whole month. I prayed that the next year would be better than the last, as well as hoping that what I would face next year would be fun an exciting as the last year had partially had been. Let’s see what happens, shall we?