Yesterday, I went to stay the night at my sixth form. Although I won’t be boarding there, day pupils like me are still assigned a boarding house so that we have somewhere to study, hang out, and eat meals, and a community to be a part of. My house is called New House, and I have a room there which I will share with three other day girls. We each have a desk in there to do our work and a couple of sofas to relax on, but I suspect I’ll be relaxing in the common room instead with all the other girls in the House!
I was invited to stay the night so I can get to know everyone in the House before I join the school in September to do A Levels in maths, English literature, politics and Latin. I was really nervous going in yesterday in case the girls were standoffish or cliquey or anything like that, but I was so relieved to find that they’re actually a really lovely bunch. Everyone was genuinely welcoming and it didn’t feel at all awkward. Of course, they’ve all been best friends for a very long time, so I’m not going to fit in with their group right away, but I’m confident that it won’t take me long at all. I got along really well with the other day girls too, and it was reassuring to see how much they fit into their group – no one is treated any differently because they’re not boarders, which is something I was worried about, seeing as I’m a day student.
We spent the evening playing card games and chatting, and then I chatted for a good hour to the girl whose room I shared for the night. We got along really well too (there actually wasn’t a single person there that I didn’t get along with!). She is from Kenya; New House actually has a lot of international students, housing girls from Kosovo, Turkey, China, Ukraine, the US and probably more!
I left early in the morning as the other girls had Chapel at 8.15 am. I’m definitely going to stay in touch with them over the summer and can’t wait to (hopefully – I still need to get the GCSE grades 😫) join them in New House properly in September.