ONE WEEK ON: TIFFINIAN RECOLLECTS

The loud shouts of girls were heard through the corridors, each house trying to chant its name the loudest. It was the school birthday, the largest event of the year. We were all out to win it, my class especially wanted to win, as we are in Year 11, meaning it is the final year the whole form is together. Therefore, we fought as hard as we could in each challenge.

The warning bell sounded signaling the movement of girls to the next challenge. In the first challenge two groups of four classmates had to transport building equipment across the room using a pulley system. It was difficult; we had to first work out how to create a zip-wire like system, and then build a tower. We were disappointed at this point, because although our tower was standing tall, we did not get first place. However, we did not let this deter us. We ensured that we did better in the rest of the games. Next, was another challenging game. It was the audiovisual challenge. In this game, we worked as a whole class, to identify the rooms where pictures had been taken. Some of the pictures were taken obscurely and it was hard to identify from which room they were in. However, our class seemed to work together as a team and we got most answers.

Then we moved onto the maths challenge. Surprising, the table I was on had quite a hard job! We had to make the numbers between one and twenty, using the numbers from the year ‘1987’. We could add, subtract, multiply and divide, however it was hard to think on the spot. When our score went on the whiteboard we all cheered, we had the highest score of the day! Next, was the dreaded dance. Every year before this one we seemed to do terribly, we always took it seriously, however not many people participated. This is reason why this year, we got all thirty one people in our form to dance to Starships by Nicki Minaj. It was great, we were all in time, together as a form. We screamed and jumped up and down when the judges said we had a perfect 30 score! We supported the other classes as they did their dances, cheering when our the Year 7s in our house went on the dance floor,

Then, ecstatic from winning, we moved onto the next challenge which was the IT challenge. This year, we played Wii bowling against the other houses in our year. I was the first up, and as I waited for the girls next to me to finish playing, I remembered all the techniques I had gathered over the years. I got a spare, which meant I got two points for my team! It was a really good feeling! Next, was the music quiz. Again, we got together as a class and answered the questions by listening to the tape. It was great for all, because everyone could recognise at least one song from the challenge, so we all had fun.

Now that the morning’s games were over, we went into the hall. This was the grand finale, where the best form from each house would go against each other to see who would win this year’s school birthday. My form was tense, because we thought we had got through, however, the teacher announcing the scores said there was a twist this year. I gulped, we really wanted to win this year! From the other forms, Year 10 went forward each time, and we were sure that year 10 from our house would go forward too. However, our form had done it!

Therefore, we picked members of the form to go against each other in the finale. This is the moment we had been waiting for. Nine classmates went up to the stage and picked up cards with letters on them. They had about a minute to create as many words as they could. The next challenge was a sporty general knowledge game, where we had to match up the name of the winner to their Olympic sport and then match it to the flag. We did very well in this too! The next game was creative, and we were taught how to flower arrange, and had to make our own poesy which would stand up. The results came in and at this point we were winning. This eliminated two other houses. The final game was a dance off. The sixth formers and teachers showed the dance and four people had to memorise it, before doing it in front of the whole school. Our form chose to go second, and we waited for the judges to give their results…
“TEN! TEN! TEN!” We had got another perfect score! We were winners overall!

In the whole school we also had a cake competition. The surrey comet was also present, and had taken pictures of the cakes. We soon found out that our cake had been chosen as the best in the whole school!

In the formal presentation we got our trophy in the presence of the Mayor of Kingston. It was a pleasure to have met her.

This year was a wonderful school birthday! It was a privilege to be part of this community, which was the theme of this year’s formal assembly.