Another year over…

by Josh Barnstable

Wheeling the orange bin over to my locker, I carefully squeezed into the small space along with the bin, in front of a tower of lockers. I opened the top locker on the right, next to the greystone wall. Cobwebs had covered my locker, and a few Daddy-Long Legs had occupied a small space in my locker for the second semester, but I didn’t mind. It kept the flies away anyway. I opened my locker door to a rather tidied mess. I took my time to look at a one thing. My maths book. Something I’d grown to despise, full of linear equations, simultaneous equations, fractions and, worst of all, algebra. I contemplated asking one of the stray year 7’s for their lighter so I could set fire to it, but I thought that was too much. I put my arm into the inside of the locker that had been my own haven for a year now, and sweeped everything out into the bin, and, with that, I knew Year 10 was over.

It’d been an interesting year. The work was noticeably more difficult, and everything seemed more rushed. It was as if classes were 10 minutes shorter. That isn’t a bad thing though. Double periods still felt like an eternity. The first semester is a blur, I can barely remember it. One highlight that sticks out was my Careers class. With a foreign teacher that can barely talk English, it was made quite interesting by the slack Year 10’s, and there was never a dull moment. Things even escalated into a chair fight once. But, despite all this, I still managed to organise a week’s worth of Work Experience at the Shepparton News with the school’s career advisor (a different person to the aforementioned foreigner).

Another good moment from Semester One was the first English class of the year. Every year you get an influx of new teachers, and when friends and I saw ‘G. Peters’ next to Advanced English, we immediately thought of some old, cranky guy named Gary. We were quite stunned when a young female by the name of Georgia walked in, and I think I share the same view as most students at school when I say she’s the best teacher at Numurkah. We still call her Gary though…

Semester Two is more vivid in my mind. I missed a large chunk of the third term due to having pneumonia, so I didn’t get into the swing of things until about week four. I soon learned that Tuesday was to be my best day. Double P.E in the morning, double English with Gary in the morning/afternoon, then double Maths to finish off, which wasn’t too bad with fellow Almanacker Jeff Paterson for all of those classes. We soon labeled Tuesday as ‘our day’. P.E had the best moments though, ranging from competitive games of Dodgeball against the Year 9’s to student-teachers arriving and forming a great bond immediately with Jeff and I. Our actual P.E teacher, Cam Byrne, is leaving Numurkah at the end of 2010, so with last Tuesday being the last time we’ll see him, it was quite sad to shake his hand and leave his office for the final time.

While Tuesday was the day I looked forward to the most, Thursday was the complete opposite. Why? Advanced (see below) and Maths in the morning, then four periods of Science to finish. The final two periods seemed to take forever to get through, and when that bell went to signal the end of the day, it was one of the happiest times of the week, knowing it was the longest time between my upcoming Thursday science-fest.

With the aforementioned Advanced class, it involved building confidence, so it was generally for the more timid people of the school. It was mostly a bludge class, no serious work got done, but I felt like I got the most out of it compared to any other subjects. I never imagined I’d be diving off a 2m-high tree stump (pretty high when you’re standing up on it!) into the arms of my classmates. Thankfully they didn’t drop me. We also had the chance to undergo five weeks of community service at any place we wanted within Numurkah. I chose to teach English at my old primary school. I was with a prep class for four of the five weeks (I pulled a sickie the day after the Almanac launch), letting them read to me, and teaching them the alphabet and how to write and spell certain words. It was fulfilling, and I know that I have that option as a teacher if journalism and radio host falls through.

It wouldn’t be a school year if it wasn’t full of controversy though. My own group of friends endured quite a big speed-bump at the start of term four, and we still haven’t properly recovered. And everyone from NSC will know of the ‘mirrors’ scandal. That is all I will say on that matter.

But now, all those memories will fade as the summer holidays start and Year 11 begins. Year 10 was a fairly easy year; it wasn’t a great stepping stone into VCE I’ll admit. But, not to worry about VCE just yet. I’ve nine weeks of freedom. So as the last bit of scrap falls from my locker to the orange bin, I walk out of the school, feeling on top of the world.

About Josh Barnstable

21 year old North Melbourne supporter from country Victoria. Currently living in Melbourne studying a Bachelor of Sports Media. Dreams of becoming a sports journalist and broadcaster.

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