oakwood Summer 2011 - Oakwood Park Grammar School

leavers day for year 13SHIRTS WERE SIGNED, INNUMERABLE PHOTOS WERE TAKEN, AND MANYA BURGER WAS EATEN AS YEAR 13 MARKED THEIR LAST DAY AT OPGS.LEAVERS’ DAY thas long been a glorified event signalling a coming of age, thelast stretch to a seemingly horizonless finish line, and the end of an era. But formany at OPGS this year it was a chapter of their lives that they weren’t yet keento close.I’m one of the ones lucky enough to have spent a full seven years at the schoolaveteran of Oakwood life who is eager to tell the stories and anecdotes atany given chance, to any willing (or unwilling) listener. Seven years can seema lifetime and you never really contemplate its end or that the familiar facesand routine will suddenly stop. This was the case for our Leavers Day wherebeginning the day in a new white t-shirt soon turned to leaving as a humancanvas, adorned in an explosion of scribbled sentiments. Age-old friendshipstried to boil down to a few words on a shirt and what struck me was just how‘together’ people were and that sharing the years meant something beyondeducation. In minutes, a simple t-shirt became a scrapbook of memory andunderstanding ranging from the almost short-story mini essays frantically drawnon, to the simplistic but eternal “it’s been jokes”.Even the new additions, some might say mainly the new additions, were sad tolet go. Oakwood has forever had that welcoming atmosphere - we look out for ourown. But don’t be misled! Leavers’ Day was much more a day of celebration thanof separation, and this part started with the prestigious Leaver’s Assembly.Being labelled as the most controversial, revealing, shocking, honest, and justall-round greatest thing to ever grace the school hall, watching our self-madepresentations with teachers and peers is a moment I don’t think I’ll ever forget. Itincluded the likes of a tear-jerking speech, the reform of an old-favourite band ofours and every single photograph you never wanted anyone to see; it really wasa masterpiece to be proud of. It delved back to the roots of our Oakwood careerswith the year 7 photo to match, whilst also never forgetting the ones that gotaway who now live on through legend!If emotions were all over the place inside, outside the story wasn’t much differentas souls were inflated at the glorious sight of a gigantic bouncy castle assaultcourse! The stuff of dreams! After a few unimaginably satisfying bounces andan ice cream in hand, it was hard to feel anything else apart from ultimatehappiness. Whether it had been our leavers’ day or our very first day of school itwas practically indistinguishable on that bouncy terrain, as the Christmas morningesquestretched smiles and inevitable case of bumped heads showed. But all inall, what a way to go. It was slightly surreal taking one last pan around at everyonein a sort of lame Hollywood movie finale way. I knew that despite how unbearablycliché it is to admit, these were probably going to be the best years of my life. Lastminute photographs, rib-breaking hugs and manly handshakes ended the day asone by one people fled the field for their own private get-togethers.I’d like to detail all the highlights of my year in one huge montage but unfortunatelythey are far, far too difficult to select. It’s unfair on the other stories to not beincluded, each one is an article on it’s own, whilst some could be considereda bit too … ‘elaborate’ for this article. It is near impossible to sum up years ofexperience and feeling into this one feature, some things are even beyond wordsbut it’s not goodbye, and the people I’ve met still mean a lot to me, as I wouldlater spill that day at Open Mic pub night! Year 7 to Year 13 has been a hugetransformation that went by at just the blink of an eye, but I wouldn’t have changedany of it. So that’s Leavers’ Day 2011 effectively and me signing our year out.I’M ALREADY LOOKING FORWARD TO THE REUNION.THE EXAMS, HOWEVER, NOT SO MUCH.each charity will receive £3,000 thanksto our school’s collective hard workThe End Of Year Awards is a long-standing tradition in Oakwood heritage and wedid not disappoint. Our year’s ‘Funniest’ jokingly shrugged off chants of speech,our ‘Cockiest’ conjured up an applause-worthy poker face as he stood up tocollect his award seconds before officially winning it, even our ‘Most-likely-tosee-on-Crimewatch’stole the show. It was also great to see that whatever wewere feeling in that hall, living in past memory and reminiscence, the teacherswere feeling too. Head of Year, Ms Lane, in particular wouldn’t have passed thechance to shortlist her favourite moments and “enlighten” us with her “pearls ofwisdom” in a million years. So rather than be joyous to see the back of us assome suspected, the staff clearly were going to miss the strong characters, classdiscussions and countless crazy shenanigans.