John Seager's 30 for 30: Day 2

A Cunning look back of 30 days which have changed my life over the past 30 years

Day 2: July 24^th 1995 – Schools’ Out then in again.  

Evening all,

Someone famous once said ‘school days – especially secondary school days – are supposed to be the best times of your life’. But for me at the early point of my secondary school career, it certainly was not.

It all came to a peak on the 24^th July 1995 – although my birthday i felt at this point of my life, i needed a one of the best birthday presents of my life so far.

After leaving my primary school i had a tough choice to make of what secondary school to go to. Although i did fail my 11 plus tests, i still feel that i can make a huge contribution at my new secondary school. But which one do i choose?

After much deliberation, i decided to join the same school which my brother was in St John School for Boys. It was familiar ground for me as my last year of my primary school was spent on the site of St. John’s as a massive fire destroyed much of my old primary school.

But life at the school was very difficult. During the first year of the school I was picked on my at least 6 people because of the way i looked. It did get me down but i couldn’t fight back as I’m not that kind of person to fight back. And to my dismay when I tried to fight back, i was the one punished by the School.

It got worse during my year 8 as St. Johns merged with the next door Rowena Girls School to form the Sittingbourne Community College.

The constant bullying continued to happen but this time it got worse. On a number of occasions i was taken out of lessons and made to help one of the Assistant Head teachers in their offices. This continued on throughout the whole year. Also when i did try to fight back, i felt that the teachers at the time from SCC punished me as I was the one fighting back.

It came to a point where i was not happy not just with my life at school but my life itself.  I totally believed that if this continued onto the next year, i would have committed suicide because of the constant bullying from everyone.

So i had a chat with my mum to ask her if i can switch school to the nearest one where i was living to which happened to be Fulston Manor, the one i turned down back in year 7.

A meeting was arranged for the 24^th July 1995. It was my birthday so which made me even more nervous but i was determined to persuade them that moving there was the only option for me.

On the day itself, we met with the then Headmaster Mr Herbert, who seemed like he was a nice man but he and SCC did have reservations about me moving to fulston because the apparent problems from SCC could happen again here at fulston.

But he was willing to give me a try and approved me moving to the school. Naturally i was ecstatic when i was told that the move can happen. I knew then that it would be difficult adjusting to the school but i was willing to do this in order to save my life.   

It did feel ironic that the meeting was being help on my birthday so naturally looking back; it was a belated birthday present but it was a present that was needed at the time.

Looking back now, i rarely talk about my time with SCC; it has changed me because i still have issues relating to meeting people. Although i am getting some help with this, i think that this period of time has made me think twice about everyone i meet and i doubt that i will ever be able to recover. 

Ironically enough some of the guys that did bully me, i have made friends with them on social site Facebook and they have apologised for their behaviour towards me. So it does prove that over time people do change. However it does also prove that some people don’t change as well.