Secondary school

Secondary school is where children’s lives take a turn and everything changes.

Premise
Students will enter as optimistic, excitable kids and will leave either nihilistic, anything but straight, or with bright future prospects.

Students must study for their exams, whether they are individual topic tests, internal exams, mock exams or real exams for actual qualifications. The aim of school is debatable.

Year groups

 * Year 7 (ages 11-12)
 * Year 7s fall into two groups. Some will think they are better than any other year and run around the school, not used to the absence of a playground. In a year’s time, they will understand they took too long to realise they aren’t the oldest in the school anymore. Some will be anxious and scared. They will stroll around the school grounds at the speed of a snail, and will carry giant rucksacks full of every book they own.
 * Year 8 (ages 12-13)
 * Year 8s will be scornful of the annoying Year 7s but don’t realise they are still young too. They will be the most relaxed about school, as the next year they will have to think about choosing GCSE subjects to study. This is the year they become teenagers and they will be determined to make it mean something, whether they discover anime or start listening to The Beatles because “no one else does”.
 * Year 9 (ages 13-14)
 * Year 9s are starting to become sassier when they know they’re not the youngest anymore. If they haven’t experienced friendship drama yet, they probably will this year before their class gets split up into different subjects in Year 10.
 * Year 10 (ages 14-15)
 * Year 10s will begin to learn the true feeling of anxiety or stress as well as how valuable mornings before registration are to get late homework done. They will also start going to lessons independently, whether that’s because they have different lessons to their friends or because they decided they don’t need to cling on to them anymore.
 * Year 11 (ages 15-16)
 * Year 11s will mock the Year 10s who find it hard already. They will be focussed on what they’re doing after GCSE exams are finished and what dress to wear to prom. During GCSEs, they will discover other students around the country hate school as well due to checking Twitter after each exam and realising no one knew what they were doing either.
 * Year 12 (ages 16-17)
 * Year 12s will begin excited to start anew, but will end the year ready to get the hell out of school. Here, they will try and befriend the oldest in the year who learnt to drive first and they will start learning that sixth formers in fact do have privileges when they can convince the teacher to make the due date two weeks instead of one. Year 12s will also be focussed on getting elected as Head Girl/Boy as if it means anything apart from a CV item and “a chance to enrich the school community.”
 * Year 13 (17-18)
 * Year 13s fall into two groups. For some it will have hit them that their 6 years of secondary school are coming to an end and they’ll be cherishing their last moments with their friends, planning coordinated outfits for muck-up day or where they’ll be going on their interrailing tour this summer. For others they will be studying harder than ever, either because they were made to, they want to get into a good university or they just want school to be over.

Terminology

 * A-Levels - examinations students (not in Scotland) spend 2 years preparing for. The average numbers of A-Levels a single student can take before being considered insane is 3-4. They take the exams in Year 13 and will use the results to get into university. Alternatively, AS-Levels can be taken alongside, as they are only 1 year long.
 * BTEC - a diploma taken by students (not in Scotland) who either want to concentrate on a single subject or weren't clever enough to do A-Levels. Either way, the results are used to get into university too.
 * Freesciencelessons.com - a GCSE student's saviour in physics, biology and chemistry. It is a YouTube channel presented by teacher Shaun Donnelly. In 10 slides, he can make you understand as much as a teacher can in 2 weeks. He should probably be knighted.
 * GCSEs - examinations students (not in Scotland) spend about 2 or 3 years preparing for. They are taken in Year 11 and the results will be used to get into sixth form, or to get a job.
 * Head boy/girl - students elected by the student body and ultimately decided by the higher powers of the school. They will be in charge of organising and overseeing events, creating schemes that try to bring the school community together and do the headteacher's handy work. Depending on how subtly they try to woke-ify the school, the student body generally respect them. Year 7s will feel honoured to be acknowledged by the head student.
 * Head boy/girl team - the head boy/girl's henchpeople, no one knows if they actually do anything or if they do all the work. They are runners up in the bid for head boy/girl.
 * Invigilator - a person who hibernates through the beginning of the school year and comes out when exam season arrives. They are paid to sit and watch students taking exams for at least 2 hours, jumping at the opportunity to pick up a dropped ruler or handing out tissues and table leg wedges. Their true times to shine come when they stand up at the front and read out the exam regulations, and at the end to collect the papers in. Students around the nation will learn all invigilators appear to be the same.
 * Muck-up day - the last day of school for Year 13 before exams. They will run riot and wreck the school, pulling pranks, covering toilet seats in Vaseline and placing cups of water in the hallways. Some may burst into lessons and take last selfies with their favourite/most hated teachers. Other years will dread this day for they will get pranked somehow but younger years will be excited they have this to look forwards to when they leave school, generating their own ideas for 5 years time.
 * Parents' consultation evening - what used to be known as Parent's Evening and will still be known as informally. This time, students need to get off their lazy arses and book appointments with teachers, whether they want to or not. On the day, teachers will be scattered around the school in different rooms and students will have to rush to their next roasting appointment while making sure their parents don't wander off.
 * Prefects - one of a Year 13 student's worst life choices. For whatever subject they are prefecting over, they are the subject teachers' minions whether that is as little as owning the title as much as running clubs and staying with them for open days.