The New Timetable
It was the first day of Miss Day’s new timetable at my school, Rushford High School. The new head teacher was making some radical changes. She was proposing that school opened later, at 10am and that students worked through computer programmes for their lessons, at their own pace. During the afternoon, she had planned lots of different activities. Everyone cheered when they heard that the school would be closed on Wednesday afternoons, but they were even more delighted when they heard that homework diaries were to be abolished. Miss Day, the new head, was going to be very popular indeed.
On the first morning of the new timetable, I was enjoying a lay in, that is me Jemima Johnson. It was very cosy in bed. “Don’t forget to get up and go to school,” shouted mum up the stairs as she dragged my brother and sister to the car. She would drop them off at primary school on her way to work. I replied dozily, “Ok mum,” but then I rolled over and went back to sleep.
“Ah!” What was that? A drill? Some men were digging up the road. I looked at the clock. It was 9.27am. “Oh no! I’ve overslept,” I said to myself, “I have to be in school by 10am.” Now I shot into action, threw on my uniform, swallowed down one of those chewy breakfast bars and dashed out of the door. I waited at the bus stop. The bus came surprisingly quickly... but, of course, the traffic had built up heavily, because of the road works. My head was buzzing with excuses that I could give to Mr Carson. I was late for school. How could I avoid a detention on the first day of the new timetable?
“Oh no,” I whispered to my friend Gemma. “I’ve missed the new school assembly and I had some work to show. Miss Rowe asked me to do a presentation of my history project yesterday, and I stayed up late to finish it.” “How late - midnight?” “Well, I didn’t start until I’d watched Westenders, but it was quite late.” “That’s probably why you slept in,” she giggled.
It was lesson time. I was sitting in front of my computer, looking at the choice of subjects. I could choose my subjects in any order. Which one should I choose first? I felt perplexed. This was more difficult than I imagined. “Well, they’ve all got to be done sometime,” I said to myself, so I chose the algebra programme in maths. I logged on to my computer and... “Oh no! Sir,” I called out to the teacher. “I can’t get my computer to work. It’s crashed.” He walked slowly over and stared at the blank screen. Then, he looked at Harvey’s screen. “Oh dear,” he shouted. “It looks like the whole system’s gone down.” Then he said, “Class seven get out a reading book or some project work. I’ve got to pop out and get the technician.”
It was the afternoon, of the first day of the new timetable. Unfortunately, there had been a few hitches. A rumour was going round the school that a certain girl had managed to cause a small explosion in the chemistry lab. She had mixed two chemicals together. I’m not too sure which ones, because science is not my best subject, but the block where the labs were had to be evacuated.
The new timetable had not got off to a good start in other subjects either. For a start, there was a din coming from the music room - a banging, a clattering and so many discordant notes, that Miss Ross ran out of her class screaming. “Turn off that racket or I will resign immediately. “ In technology, a girl had apparently sawn off the leg of a chair - in art a boy had spilt a full tin of paint all over the floor, while so many brushes had been piled into the sink that the plug hole had blocked and the rising water had caused a flood on the floor.
But how were the children doing who had ventured out on a school trip? There had been a few hiccoughs here too. The rowdy bunch of children in Seven S had got far too over exited at the thought of their field trip in social studies. They had been fighting and throwing things on the coach and had exasperated the coach driver. Then, Amelia had been sick. On arrival at the nature reserve, Jasmine had picked a bunch of rare flowers for her mum, while her long suffering teacher had hauled Joe out of the lake and inspected his ripped uniform. Could things get any worse? At the museum, for history, Tara was tempted to pick up a precious pot from the fifth century BC, somehow she managed to lift it from the glass case. It was only for a moment, so she could say she had held an ancient relic, but it slipped slowly from her grasp and went crashing down onto the floor in several pieces. The museum said the school must pay for it to be restored - but I think that is out of order. The museum should not have put valuable things around children.
At last the bell rang because it was home time. What a relief! I had opted out of homework club so I arrived home with nothing to do except turn on the T.V. There was nothing interesting on, only tiny tots T.V. What should I do? I really missed my homework. I looked for my mobile to ring my friends but it needed charging. My mum burst through the door, having just picked up my brother and sister from the minder. “How did the new timetable go?” she asked enthusiastically. “Cool,” I muttered glumly. “You don’t sound convinced,” replied mum. “Well if you really want to know”... I paused but then it all started to pour out of my mouth. “I am not sure I like the new timetable. In fact, I don’t like it at all and I might even change schools. I miss the old style of teaching. I miss watching Mr Virdee scribbling out math’s problems on the white board. I miss Miss Rowe, the history teacher, droning on about William the conqueror. I prefer to write down my work in exercise books. In fact, I quite like it when strict teachers shout, “Sit down!” “Keep the noise down!” I miss all that discipline stuff. Mum looked concerned.... Secretly I was looking forward to Wednesday afternoon. I had chosen horse riding as my special interest. I didn’t think I’d be particularly good at it, as I’d heard that standing in the saddle makes your muscles ache. Besides this, I’m scared of heights and horses are quite big. In fact, I’m scared of horses.
Can you answer these questions about the text?
1. Who was Miss Day?
2. What changes had she made?
3. What noise startled the writer when she was in bed and what did she realise?
4. What caused the traffic congestion?
5. Why do you think her head was ‘buzzing with excuses’?
6. What problems arose in school on the first day of the new timetable?
7. What problems occurred on the school trips?
8. Why were there so many problems do you think?
9. How did the writer feel when she arrived home?
10. What would it be like to organise your own day? For example, choosing which subjects to study and in which order?
11. What is your ideal school day?
12. Is homework necessary? Write down what you think?