Transition

[written as part of a lesson for pupils moving into year 10]

I don’t know quite what I expected,
But well, this was not it at all.
The girls all just want to be skinny,
The boys, to be fit and tall.
We’ve only been gone for one summer,
But just about everything‘s changed;
We’re all starting to look a bit different,
And everyone’s acting so strange.
Mark’s going out with Miranda,
Annabel fancies my mate,
Everything’s suddenly harder
Than it was in year 9 or year 8.
The teachers keep giving us homework,
And wittering on about grades,
My Mum and my Dad are no better,
Summer memories rapidly fade.
But there’s some things I like a bit more now,
We got to pick subjects to drop,
I’m doing more maths (which I love) now,
But art (which I hate) has now stopped.
And I like that we get some more freedom,
Time to learn in a way that we choose,
But it’s all a great big shift from last term,
And it’s making me slightly confused.