Hello, my name is Zubin.
Friday
I’m in Year 7, and I’m a part-time boarder, boarding on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights. On boarding nights, I live in Middle Lodge with other boys in Year 7, as well as our house parents Mr and Mrs Cousens, their baby Phoebe and their dog Truffles. I’ve been at Westbourne House since Year 2. My brother is in Year 5 and my sister is in Year 3.
7.10am
I boarded last night, so I get a nice lie in! We get up at 7.10am and get ready for the school day, then head to breakfast at 7.30am in the dining room with other boarders and any children who come in early for breakfast. After breakfast we have a bit of free time.
8.25am
We head to our form rooms. I’m in Mrs Sutcliffe’s form with a group of 20 boys and girls from Years 7 and 8. We get our books ready for the first three lessons, and the register is taken. Mrs Sutcliffe gives us any messages and reminders. We start the day with pastoral time and on Fridays I catch up with my tutor.
9am
We have a set of three lessons. Today we had maths followed by French and ICT. In maths we have been working on transformations, and today we got on to enlargements – which is when a shape gets larger (or smaller), expanding from a centre of enlargement. It reminded me of some of the work we’ve done on perspective in art.
11am
We break for ‘crusts’, which is a funny name for a snack such as bread with jam, butter or marmite, or something like carrots and cucumbers or nachos. We then have break time, when a lot of us rush to the nets to practise batting and bowling. Lots of kids head to the Boundaries (the woods) to make dens or play ‘Family It’.
11.30am
After break we have two more lessons before lunch. In Geography, we were using some new tools to measure the weather. Mrs Pollock showed us how to measure rainfall with a rain gauge. We are placing these around the grounds and measuring them over a term.
1pm
Lunch at school is actually really good. We’ve been working on manners at school this term, so there are funny posters around the dining room reminding us to offer the ketchup to our friends! After lunch we have a pretty long break to play or relax with friends.
Tutor meeting
I had a short meeting with my personal tutor today. We talked about how I feel about my recent exam results and about how the cricket season is going. I can raise any concerns I have with my tutor – about my school work or anything going on with my friends, but everything is going well at the moment!
2.15pm
We have three lessons after lunch. Each day we have at least one hour playing the great sports we play in the summer term – cricket, athletics and tennis. Cricket is my favourite sport.
3.30pm
We have a short ‘biscuit break’ at 3.30pm, followed by one final lesson in the afternoon at 3.45pm. Today we have Science and we are studying Biology and are doing some dissection.
4.55pm
We have a 45 minute prep session at the end of the day. I can usually finish off my prep during the school day. Today we had Senior Choir - we’re practising for the end of year school concert, where we’re singing a few songs from The Greatest Show together with our awesome Drum Group.
5.30pm
Day pupils go home at 5.30pm, unless they are doing an after school activity like tennis, debate or speech and drama.
We have dinner together in the dining room (except on Wednesdays, when we have a BBQ outside!) and then have free time.
Boarding at Westbourne House is amazing. In the evening we can play outside, use the tennis and squash courts, play table tennis or loads of other options. The house parents arrange fun activities in the evenings, such as slip 'n' slide, water fights and treasure hunts. Sometimes we go out of school to the beach or to the cinema.
8pm
We head back to the boarding houses for a shower and some down time in the common room, before lights out at 8.45pm.
- ENDS -
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