William Brookes School Blog

A Sixth Form student shares his experience of doing this year’s pantomime:

 If I hadn’t done the pantomime I wouldn’t have the confidence I do now. I always get involved in as many opportunities available to me as possible. There’s no point in being here if you don’t. The people who put the time and effort in at school are the ones who get the most out of it.

The pantomime was a disaster from day one. But, it was a disaster that came good in the end, through hard work and determination. Costumes were still being sorted on the day of the first performance, people still kept fluffing their lines and the performance was very wooden in general. On the Sunday, rehearsals took 8 hours! I actually made a £10 bet that it would be cancelled!

However, everyone pulled their socks up and by the Tuesday performance everything  went as well as we could have hoped for, despite a few minor mistakes. Our year 11 performance was the most well received, as all the jokes about teachers were understood.

One of the good things about it was that I got to mix with people that I’d never even spoken to before and that was one of the best things about it. Before curtain up each time we would have a dance and a little chant to prep us up and after the final performance we had a wrap party.

Everybody worked really hard to make it happen, we would like to thank everyone that took part. It’s a joint thing: you can’t really say one person is more important than another, we all made it happen and it wouldn’t have been the same if anyone had played any other part than the one they were given.

Lots of people in year 6 keep asking me about the homework you get and what to do about detentions, well here is your answer…

Homework:  at the start of your time in year 7 at William Brookes you get a lot of homework, you almost get some for every lesson, but don’t worry, it’s only so that the teachers (especially english and maths) can make sure you are in the correct set for ability to flourish without it being too much of a struggle for you, and after your teachers are sure that they’ve put you in the right set, the amount of homework you get is drastically decreased to about 2-3 pieces of homework a week.

Detentions:  this is a topic that I myself was worried about when I came up to year 7, but don’t worry, as long as you don’t get distracted by other students in your class, do good in the class, try that extra bit harder in your homework you won’t even need to know about what you do if you DO end up in detention.

Tip 1: Sort out books etc for the next school day as soon as you get home, that way you’ll know that you have everything that you will need.

Tip 2:Try to get as little an amount of red dots/ detentions as possible( that way you wont end up hating going to school and enjoy it a bit more( i would prefer not to go to school myself but its a place where you can meet friends that you wouldn’t see outside of school))

Tip 3: Make lots of friends, the more you have the better work you will do and you will be emotionally more healthy.

Tip 4: I am not telling you to turn into a teachers pet but try to impress the teachers more, beacause the more the teachers like you they may be a little more persistent when you are doing badly.

Tip 5: ENJOY YOURSELF, if you don’t have fun at break or lunch, school may turn out to a dark and gloomy place!