What's Cool About School...and what's not

Joe and Tom in their uniforms and ready for the first day of school. Harlaxton Manor is in the background.

Joe:

The school is very small and it is easy to find my way around. There are 21 kids in my class, about the same as at Manz, but there is only one classroom of 6th year students.

I like the fact that my school has a football (soccer) team and a track team. My team thinks I should be goalie but I really don't want to be. We have practice every Friday after school and it lasts about one hour. There are about 10 6th year students (my class) and 8 5th year students trying out for the football team. My track team is the best. We had 3 kids finish in the top 10 at the first meet (including me.) We have two more runs yet to come and I hope we do as well in the rest.

We get 4 recesses lasting about 15-20 minutes each. During recess we play a game called 'family tag' (sharks and minnows.) Everybody here sounds like they say 'tig' when they say 'tag.'

Out my classroom window we watch for birds because of all the trees outside. They are attracted to the feeders we have set out. The robins are very small and look more like finches with red bellies. There are also lots of woodland pigeons and one is building a nest outside the window.

We get all our homework on Friday, about 5 or 6 sheets, and then we have until the following Friday to return it.

We take swimming lessons every other Friday. My class and Tom's class go together. We ride a bus to the pool in Grantham. In my group we swim laps doing the front crawl, back crawl, butterfly/dolphin and the breast stroke. The water is about 5 feet deep and pretty warm - thank goodness.

We have a very short lunch break and don't eat until 12:30. We don't get any snacks at school so I'm hungry by then.

When we change clothes for phy ed, we all change in the classroom - boys and girls together. I always change in the loo.

The school libraray is small and we have no scheduled library time.

Tom:

I am taking violin lessons on Fridays. I could have chosen a viola or a cello or a violin. I chose the violin. I know the D string and the A string.

I take French class on Thursdays. When we were in Nottingham yesterday I saw a restaurant sign in French that said Le Petit Four. I told my family that it meant The Little Four.

At recess I play family tig with the 6th years.

I like math the most.

The first week of school I did a report on racoons. There are no racoons in Europe so I am the only person in my class that has ever seen a racoon. I wrote a poem about racoons called I See A Racoon.

I am writing a story called The Magic Earrings. It can only have 2 characters. They are a girl called Claire and a genie.

My class has 18 students.

The walk to school is fun because we like to see how far we can get before the bell at the college rings at 8:45. We put rocks by the field to show how far we got. The fields have potatoes in them and one day I found a potato and my mom cooked it for me to eat. It was good.

I think school is harder here and the teachers are bossier than at my old school.