School Memories
There's too much to mention here, this is a work in progress!
Pre-Owens
Maman and Papa were certainly future-oriented. In my early days, we all moved from Barnet to Potters Bar. Though Potters Bar, indeed a decent place to live, is not as well connected and as entertaining as Barnet (Potters Bar is a very, very dull town), they wanted to ensure the best for me. As a child of first-generation immigrants, they did whatever they could. A change of primary school, life changed quite drastically.
I would attend Pope Paul School, enrolling in the middle of Year 2. It’s daunting starting a new school and leaving friends behind from St. Catherine’s school in Barnet. I had a tumultuous time there; I had close friends in Megan, Sara and Rosa, but gave a ginger kid called Adam a lot of trouble.
I soon made some friends– I remember Harriette being the first friend I made. She was good friends with Marisa, who would become the friend from my year which I would be seeing the most. Her mum, Sharon, would be my childminder right until the end of primary school. We were good friends, though we did have our odd fights. I would become particularly close with her brother, Ciaran, who was two years above us. He would introduce me to a lot of things – Nintendo 64; mostly Super Mario 64, Goldfinger and The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, the former of which I erased his save file with 85 stars as I wanted to get rid of the Boos in the courtyard in Peach’s Castle – my favourite place in the game at the time without the spooky spirits present. He also had his PS2, where we played Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City - quite traumatising at first, but it was not long until I went on my own crime sprees. One week, when Ciaran was away on his field trip, Sharon gave me full permission to play on his PS2, where I would make it a goal to reach the elusive 6 crime stars in Vice City (I usually only reached four stars until I got busted!) Naturally, we had our fights, but we remained close until the last day of primary school, where we went our separate ways in life.
My closest friends, however, were the ‘Sophia Gang’. They were always together, the four of them; Sophia, Kristina, Caterina and Carla, Pope Paul students since Reception. It wasn’t until a few months after joining the school where I would start to spend break and lunch with them (I would usually hang out with Marisa and Harriette). There was a collection of toys, coming out of Kinder Eggs (this was my daily treat after dinner), which were illusions, they were two separate objects depending on how you looked at them. I just had to bring them in and show someone, the Sophia gang were initially, but cautiously, intrigued. It was not long until I became the fifth member of the ‘Sophia Gang’.
From the days of St. Catherine’s, I would prefer to spend my break and lunchtimes with girls. I didn’t care for sport and didn’t like rough games. The girls’ games were much more fun. The Sophia Gang’s games were the most imaginative. Sophia was the boss of us all, she would suggest most of the games – mostly involving horses and cooking. There were times where we would separate and do our own things – in Year 3 I would play a lot of games with Caterina, and in Year 6, I spent a lot of time with Carla.
Two new students would join throughout my time in Pope Paul, Oladayo, who joined in Year 4, and Ezinne who joined at the start of Year 5. I would become good friends with both, and they would also join the Sophia Gang. My family would be close with Oladayo and Ezinne’s, as we were all from African families.
There was one time where being in the Sophia Gang saved almost a month’s worth of lunchtimes ! Almost all the boys in our class were playing a very rough game on the jungle gym (except for Marco, Connor and myself). It was so violent. Mrs. O’Connor, the scariest teacher I have ever dealt with (I had two run-ins with her), abruptly ended our lunchtime and sat the entire Year 5s and 6s in an impromptu assembly, where she majorly chewed us out. All boys would be barred from spending lunchtimes outdoors until the end of the term (three weeks!) I was too terrified to speak up and plead my innocence as I was hanging out with the Sophia Gang as usual – but one teacher was there to plead my case on my behalf, and I was spared, sent out of assembly by Mrs. O’Connor to resume play – I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
It was at that time when my love for the tube really commenced. My mum would bring back tube maps and other memorabilia for me on our drive back from Barnet back to our new home. Now being away from the tube, I wanted to ride it that much more, it became a weekend treat, essentially unnegotiable – to the level of tantrums when my father would offer us a drive into central London.
An imaginative child I was, whilst playing around in my new school, I mentally morphed into a 1995 stock Northern Line train and ran laps around the playground. By Year 3, I had devised a tube line to which I would run the service. From Eamonn Gate to Gemma Gate, services were daily and frequent.
A larger house with more space and a garden weren’t the only reasons for the Smith family’s move out of the Greater London boundary. The house my parents chose was very close to a very well-reputed school – Dame Alice Owen’s. It was my parents’ desire to send me to this school.
Dame Alice Owen’s is a very highly regarded state school, rivalling private schools in academic standards. It’s not a surprise that many parents wish to send their children there. Demand exceeds the number of available places, hence prospective students need to undertake entrance examinations in Year 6 in order to secure a place. There are other ways to get an offer to study at Owen’s – having an older sibling already attending the school, a music exam, or on a locational basis. I was in good stead to be accepted into Owen’s, being less than a 10-minute walk away, yet I still studied hard for the music and 11+ exams. My parents ensured that I would cover all possible bases to secure the greatest chance of enrolment.
At one point, I was setting my sights on Nicholas Breakspear Catholic School (known as Nicky B’s). Many of my best friends at Pope Paul Primary School were destined there, at the wishes of their parents. Pope Paul’s was a Catholic school, so there was the desire for parents to continue their children's education within the religious realm. My parents, however, strictly forbade me from following the crowd. It was Dame Alice Owen’s or nothing. Just as well, Nicky B’s was essentially in the middle of nowhere; poorly connected, in the outskirts of St. Albans. Upon quick reflection (and sound advice from my parents), the obvious argument of trading a 5-minute walk to a renowned school, for a grueling commute involving lots of walking and school buses to Colney Heath was the height of childhood senselessness. When staying at Marisa's, we would sometimes have to pick up Ciaran from Nicky B's - the drive felt like it took ages. I won’t even go into being coaxed by some of my friends on my street to attend Mount Grace School instead.
I had all the good fortune, as planned by my parents, and they were exceptionally hard on me during the winter of 2004/5, ensuring that I studied hard to attain excellent grades in the 11+ and entrance exams. It was a grueling week, and Maman picked me up from Owen’s after I took the last exam. I remember it vividly; she hugged me and brought a couple of White Chocolate Lindt Lindors – and we all went for a Pizza Express that evening. (This was a usual thing for us to do!)
Two of my closest friends in Pope Paul, Oladayo and Ezinne, were looking to secure places at Dame Alice Owen’s too, so I was hoping we would all be accepted together. On 1 March 2005, Oladayo and Ezinne were excited to announce they would be Owenians come the Autumn – and it was not long until I found out I would be joining them. Maman and Papa were of course elated and made sure that I was ready to start in September.
Year 7 (2005-06)
One very long summer holiday (4 weeks), my dad especially wanted to make sure I was well equipped for my first days as an Owenian. Uniforms secured, school supplies sorted; here I was, in my large bag, slightly oversized uniform (I was consistently amongst the shortest boys in the year until a well-coveted growth spurt in Years 10 and 11), walking to school with Oladayo and Ezinne by my side. The new starters began the academic year a day earlier than the Year 8s to 13s, to familiarise ourselves with the school without the peril of mischievous older students. We were sorted into our form groups and teaching groups; I was delighted that my two fellow Pope Paul graduates were in the same form group as me. In Mr. Payne's form group, 'OP', Ezinne, Oladayo and I sat together, but ultimately, we would not share any other classes.
The first Friday went well, I remember spending the break and lunchtime with Connor, another fellow student from Pope Paul - we would become a little closer than we ever were at Pope Paul as we faced Owens together. I excitedly brought back my homework diary with my new timetable sorted, as I recalled the day, relatively enjoying my first day as an Owenian. My dad had a barbecue planned, (If I recall, Oladayo and Ezinne also came round for it). However, come Monday, it was all systems go. The entire school was here now, the buildings, hallways and outdoor spaces significantly busier.
In Year 7, with the exception of PE, Art, DT and Food (for P.E., we were split into athletic ability, and the latter three required smaller classes), the entire year was split into teaching groups – D A O W E N S (see what they did there). This essentially split the year up. I was in teaching group N.
There were three main groups, DA, OW and ENS. DA and ENS– and generally the groups kept to themselves. There was many a debate to which of the group of letters was the smartest I think we were all ranked equally, just split into two groups to make things easier to schedule.
I liked my ENS group – teaching group N was a fun set of peers. I distinctly remember the second lesson being P.E. – and this is where we were sorted into our groups. Not being versed in sports, with the only sport I liked being rounders (and being told rounders is a ‘girls’ game, because of course), though I was quite good at anything that didn’t involve a ball – I ended up in the B-stream of athletes. There, I was able to meet some of the students in groups E and S, as we all struggled through P.E. together.
Early friends included Charlie, who I would sit next to for many of my classes, both of us sharing the same surname. Katy was next to Charlie due to surnames; Sp being three letters away from Sm. Pearce and I would become friends during one of the first science classes, as we discreetly shared answers whilst taking a surprise test. Gabriel and I would become friends after struggling to find the classroom for our first R.E. class. George and I had fun in IT when creating PowerPoints, I played with the animated ClipArt, trying to get a monkey to shoot a basket. We were all looking forward to the end of the first week – the final period on Friday being Drama. We expected a fun, relaxing class, not knowing how strict and irascible our Drama teacher, Mrs. Rossi, would turn out to be, snapping at all of us to change into our trainers, and admonishing Wilym for the sheer cheek of resting his feet on her stool to tie his shoes.
It took some time to adjust to the secondary school life. The trip to Osmington Bay early on in Year 7 was a stark contrast to the hugely enjoyable trip to Kingswood at the end of Year 6. I was envious of Anjali, who I sat next to in Science, who would not be coming along to the trip. The coach trip up the M3 felt like ages; I temporarily had to stop the coach as my bladder was to the point of bursting. Osmington Bay was bleak, the weather was sombre and the activities were not as exciting. The nearby beach of Dorset was a far cry from those I was used to in Corsica (Kingswood had a much nicer offering). I stayed in a chalet with Theo and Ed, who were entertaining roommates. I can still remember Theo not being able to contain his laughter as he rambled about a Tom & Jerry game where you had to collect bananas. Ed brought a drinks hat along (though nothing alcoholic was taken with him). I would fake a headache to get out of a trip disco on the Wednesday evening, though I did enjoy collecting sea glass on the beach, diabolos with Mr. Archer, a trip to Corfe Castle where I hung out with Lisa. I was very glad to escape the Weymouth Village on the coach home, sitting next to Connor – and an oven pizza was waiting for me on my arrival home.
I was easily making friends during classes, but not very strong bonds at first. Oladayo and Ezinne had found their friendship groups in their respective teaching groups, as had Connor. Early in the year, I believe my first friends were Nathaniel and Alec. I would end up hanging out with Suraj every now and again during lunch breaks, his obsession with Skittles apparent even this early in the school years. Breaktimes were still reserved, as at Pope Paul, for running around the school pretending to be a tube train, as I initialised development the Conapega metro system in my head. It’s quite surprising on reflection that I was never bullied for it, in fact I was lucky that Year 7 was the only time where I faced bullying throughout my school life. I endured the teasing of Ciaran, a ginger kid in the year above, who would bump into me whilst I waited in the queue for lunch, and made fun of my afro hair – but even that was a fleeting period (he must have moved on to other Year 7s). A nerdy kid, short in stature with distinct hair, I was rather glad to slip the net of the bullies. I did get unwanted attention from a strange Year 10, who had a bit of a reputation, desperate to become my friend (other students in my year warned me about him).
Unbeknownst to me, my parents were having relationship difficulties. My mum hinted at this on the summer holiday, where she was considering moving back to Corsica. I begged her to convince me that would never happen. But alas, my parents would divorce and my mum would return to Corsica on the last week of Autumn term. It was of course devastating (with the very paltry consolation of being excused of completing a relatively large homework assignment for English). However, to quell my sadness, I was due for my first ever trip to Freetown, Sierra Leone. An amazing trip, seeing the country of my origin, I enjoyed good weather, beaches, and meeting more of the family (including some of my aunts, uncles and cousins from America who also showed up). Inspired by Taj from Kerching, one of the shows on CBBC I used to watch with Marisa, I wanted the same hairstyle. A painful experience at the hair braider, where I burst out crying from the pain of my hair being pulled, my braids did not end up as sleek as Taj’s do.
It was almost as I reinvented myself that holiday. I returned to school with the plaits, and they were noticed by my peers. Many thought they were literally the coolest thing ever. My first class of the year, R.E., with Mrs. Blaskett, in a relocated room – I ended up in a group activity with Gabriel, Charlie and Pearce – and this would become my first solid friendship group. Josh and Stephen also joined in – and now I had people to hang out with during lunchtime. Yet, I ran into a new discovery in the I.T. block – Computer Club. Ran by one of the I.T. technicians (who actually previously worked with my dad), you could spend the entire lunchtime break using the computers to do your homework or play games. Miniclip, Crazy Monkey Games and Neopets (all before facing the block from Hertfordshire Grid for Learning, the mortal enemy of us school students); he was far less strict than Mrs. Compton, the stereotypical librarian who ran her fiction and non-fiction libraries with an iron fist. Pearce was not happy with me spending too much time at computer club: ‘Can’t believe you’re ditching us to play games on the computer’.
Neopets was the game du jour in early January and February. There was a race to get the first painted pet – so I had to earn my Neopets salary by playing many of the games. Anand and I knew all the secrets for the games and best ways to quickly earn more neopoints. I spent as much time as I could playing – I really wanted my Disco Acara. This culminated in a truly obsessive period, where I would lock myself in my room as soon as school started to play constantly until bedtime, with a break for dinner. My dad wasn’t around, his friend was looking after me – this wouldn’t have happened on my dad’s watch!
I was closest to Pearce, all throughout Year 7 to 11 (after which we no longer shared any classes). I didn’t want to annoy him, but I did so as I was very prone to crying if I was upset. There were times in Year 7 where he just gave me the hump as I couldn’t hold back tears, but by the end of the year I had a much better hold on my emotions. I also really wanted to head to his birthday party, however at the time I was staying at my aunt’s house (incidentally only a 10-minte walk from his house). My aunt, being a Jehovah’s Witness, being against birthdays, would not drop me off to his house to celebrate.
School was going great, and the year was going by fast. Science classes were fun as Mrs. Mukherjee was always willing to do experiments. Paige and I would pretend to be in a relationship. Mr. Lawlor succeeded in finding my maths Achilles heel as I struggled with isometric drawing. Mrs. Luxford, the strictest teacher in the school would berate us for struggling with the kitchen equipment. We all gave Mr. Copsey a hard time as we saw how many names we could make him write on the board – of those who were being disruptive whilst he was teaching.
*
Year 7 ended, with our first experience of the end of year assembly. Awards were handed out, but everyone remembers singing the school anthem. ‘Success attend your play, YOU’RE GAY’, much to the chagrin of Dr. Davison. For completing the year, I would be off to Corsica for a 5-week trip, the longest yet. One advantage of Maman moving back to Corsica was opening the possibility of very long holidays. No need for my mum to book leave from work, begging to get three weeks - Corsica 2006 was just the start of an era of some iconic holidays.
Year 8 (2006-07)
Maureen left a note on my desk whilst I was enjoying my 66% extra free summer holiday, reminiscing that Year 8 was the most fun year of her time in secondary school. It made logical sense; Year 7 involved getting used to a new environment, at the bottom of the pecking order, coming into one’s own in school. Year 9 had SATs for us to worry about, Years 10 and 11 had GCSEs and A-Levels were the focus for Years 12 and 13. Year 8 was just pure freedom. Most of us had carved out our groups in the year group – and plus – we were no longer the youngest students there.
The new school year dawned. With my new shoes and smaller bag, I was ready to take on the year. Classes started to mix up – no longer exclusively teaching group N. The Es and Ss got into the mix, as we were sorted into sets for Maths, English, French and Spanish – so I got to know more of the year and make further friendships.
The beginning of Year 8 was rocky. Parents evening occurred early in the year for the Year 8s. The school would devise a new system in preparation for the evening, distributing Ws and Xs to students for each subject. X stood for excellence, W… I can’t quite recall. ‘Worries’? Somehow, I ended up with 6 Ws. I’m not quite sure what happened – perhaps I was not handing in homework assignments on time, but I really don’t think I was that disruptive in class. Papa was exceptionally angry, so things had to change. After a very stern punishment, I would do just that.
Mr. Westcott, bless him, did not bestow to me the same inspiration that my primary school teacher, Mrs. Martin. For ABRSM exams, you got a choice of three pieces (six if you had the money to buy more sheet music) for each category. Mrs. Martin was able to play them all (all for sight reading) to help me make my choice. Mr. Westcott made the choices for me.
Mr. Westcott’s choices for my Grade 3 pieces were enjoyable. I’d have preferred the Aria over the Sonatina in B-flat (Wesley) for category A, but that Sonatina is iconic since when I see a piano, this is automatically the first piece I’d play. Sunshine (Tarp) for category B was a beautiful piece; only 8 bars in total but a pleasure to play. The best piece, which I managed to coax Mr. Westcott into choosing was the Cha Cha (Merath), was beloved by my dad. (I made an odd choice for the exam where I slowed down for the ending bar, which was not well received by the examiner).
Grade 4 was another story. I bought the books excitedly from the music shop at the Grand Arcade in North Finchley, buzzing to continue my piano journey. Attempting to sight-read the pieces as soon as I returned home to my piano, a piece by Zipoli and El Fantasma (Granados) and a piece by Villa-Lobos were my choices. Mr. Westcott thought completely different. Category A was far and away my least favourite piece I have ever learned on the piano, an exceptionally boring number in A called Air (Cook). Even the sound of the first chords haunts me. Category B was a awkward piece named Cattle Call (Grieg, nothing against him, because his piece I played for my Grade 5 exam was a pleasure extremely fun to play). Upon a re-listen it’s an interesting piece of music. Category C was a jazz piece named Bop Goes the Weasel (Readdy). Supposedly it was a jazz remix of ‘Pop Goes The Weasel’ but I found it hard to discern the melody of the song in the piano piece. Likewise with Cattle Call, listening to it on YouTube now, it’s really funky sounding with lots of quirky features, but I simply couldn’t connect to the music whilst I was attempting to learn it (it also ends quite abruptly). I started to bunk off piano lessons, much to the chagrin of my dad, who was paying…
My focus was strictly on computer games, the very thing which my dad vouched to never introduce to my life. Not ever owning a video games console, my video game experience was had whilst at Sharon’s after primary school. Two games took up much of my time – Chip’s Challenge of course remained popular, but N: The Way of The Ninja was the main event – now at this point I was a regular member of the Metanet Forums, my new social space. Through this, I was introduced to Game Maker, even beginning to make my own games.
With my dad on my case (with the punishment of confiscating my laptop), I had to get back on course. Threats to send me to a boarding school set me straight (when I walked into school terrified and broke down in Art class). I loved Owens by then, had made some good friends, and the idea of having to leave that behind and be far from home was not appealing.
With some positive improvements in my academic life, my laptop was returned. Social media was on the rise at this time. More innocent and creative than what we have now – MySpace and MSN Messenger were where it was happening. We all flocked to MySpace to create our profiles. We connected and added each other as friends. Gaudy layouts taken from dedicated websites (I ended up designing my own from scratch), and a choice of music playing in the background, you could share photo albums and comment on each other’s pages. MySpace, in hindsight, was a great place. We look back to Tom from MySpace with nostalgia – Tom was genuinely a good person. A far cry from Mark Zuckerburg and Facebook, which we all gradually ditched MySpace for. I’ve lost complete access to my MySpace profile and its pictures, sadly.
MSN messenger brings back nostalgia. Who could forget that iconic tri-tone when a message was received. You could shortcut text inputs into emojis (which got on my nerves quickly when every N in my message would convert to a graffiti style). We messaged each other constantly, a great way to connect out of school and make more friends (Jacob, sorry for all the messages)…
With classes mixing up for a few subjects, there was more opportunity to mix within the year group. I was spending less time in Computer Club compared to year 7, choosing to spend time outside with my friends during break and lunch. Friendship groups expanded, though my main group of Pearce, Gabriel, Charlie, Josh and Stephen.
Charlie invited me round to spend the day. The Wii had come out the November prior, and Charlie got one (presumably for Christmas). Went to his house a couple of times. A lot of our group lived in the Welwyn area, so inevitably, we would all hang out in the town centre – mainly the Howard Centre. One sunny March afternoon, we had all bought mini water guns and had a water gun fight by the fountain. I also distinctly remember us all heading to Beth’s house randomly.
Gabriel's Bar Mitzvah - Charlie, Sanford, Pearce and myself were invited, along with Katy and Anjali (from memory). I was dropped off by my dad to the Radlett Reform Synagogue for the service.
After that, it was a couple of hours at his grand house, mainly watching Catherine Tate sketches (am I bothered?) and South Park episodes as the Routemasters for hire arrived to pick us up. Then began our very own tour of central London, taking in the sights, with the ultimate destination – Grays Inn, for a full banquet at the grand venue – a full three course meal. The hall was full of extended family and friends, his family had really put on a grand event for a significant milestone in his life. We were all given yarmulkes for the event, I still have mine.
The social echelon of the school. Hayley’s 13th birthday party was buzzing, full of rowdy Year 8s necking fizzy drinks (my dad forbade me drinking cola). Some of us went outside to try and recreate the diet coke and mentos experiment. Gabriel, Illya and I, trying to be gangsta, donned hoodies (me borrowing Gabriel’s) and made gang signs with our fingers, whilst another student was photographing. Gabriel would make edits, adding lightning effects, to be uploaded to MySpace. That’s where my infamous lil’ Jacques profile picture came from.
Eventually, Gabriel found the perfect place for his hoody. Being one of the taller people in the year at the time, and me being very close to the shortest, he would very kindly give it to me as a gift. I wore it as much as humanly possible, and was able to show it off on the next non-uniform day. With my K-Swiss strap shoes, Billabong t-shirt and Gabriel’s hoody, even with an older student calling me a chav from afar, I felt like the coolest kid in the year. I had climbed the school social ladder and almost felt a little uncomfortable. A far cry from lowly kerfuffling at the start of year 7, pretending to be a Northern Line train.
Ecko was the hot brand at the time. I had a kind gift, but I needed more branded clothing to keep my status. My mum was due for a visit from France that March, so on a trip to the Harlequin Centre, with its own JD Sports – I made my way down there and was in awe of an intricate, black T-shirt adorn with accoutrements. The famous rhino, denoated in plastic squares. Tons of special effects on the print. This was the height of coolness for 12-year-olds.
Around this time, I was getting to grips with Game Maker again. One weekend, I would start work on my first official game – Gabriel’s Ecko Hunt. It was to be a simple Mario-style adventure starring Gabriel, using cool Koopa Troopa sprites I had found on the internet. The concept was simple – travelling through levels to collect Ecko clothes. Learning the software (and its programming language), I attempted to create a simple platformer engine. I tried to make sense of the tutorials for bare-bones platformer creations, however I totally botched the physics. Instead of gravity bringing you down after jumping, it instead forced you to the left of the screen. Programming jumping was a complete bungle too, instead of a single jump, you could fly endlessly by holding the space button. The only way to bring yourself downwards was through a roughly programmed wall-sliding move. It was a truly bizarre game, though my delusional self thought this was innovative at the time. I imagined myself winning the award for Indie Game of the Year.
Gabriel’s attack moves included shooting three kinds of shells at enemies. The enemies of the game were firstly Kyle from South Park, though this devolved into frogs, various enemies from the Super Mario series, cans of Relentless energy drink, Waz’s bag, Gavin from the year below and a neighbour I couldn’t stand. The story was as such – Waz took over the school, kidnapped several fellow students and banned Ecko from ever appearing in school – so Gabriel had to collect all the Ecko emblems to restore peace back to the school. He would be joined by Stephen (represented as a Yoshi who could eat eggs to gain magic powers), Pearce (a ninja turtle who had better attacks) and Josh (a Goomba with his own special moves). You travelled from Gangsta land, to Illya’s house (which was a full world of 15 levels, must have been a big house), then the Welwyn area, towards Dame Alice School itself (which for some reason had desert music playing in the background in-game). Then into London, via the Underground – then through an underground cave leading to the beach. Suddenly, the game brought you to Josh’s house. Through the ‘Fat Park’, you’d end up at the dark side of the worlds – Haunted House, Horrid Terrid Spooky Wood, Dark World… Brixton Boundaries… and… … Peckham. The ultimate mission was to defeat Tom Ritson, then Waz, (which would be represented as Magikoopas) in a humongous showdown. I never programmed enough levels to make it that far, I only reached the ‘Fat Park’. Still, there was a little bit of buzz for the release of my game. ‘Jacques is making a game with Ecko and South Park and everything it’s going to be so cool’, commented Sanford on my MySpace page. I did release a 6-world preview, though to low fanfare (as my friends realised how awful it was).
To be continued... but it's all about the map!
