Who even uses compasses in school anyway? I can't recall ever using a compass.

Anyway, primary school was good enough. It was a decent build of a primary school with decent enough facilities. I was probably the mark of an average student: I was very attentive and was almost painfully well behaved, but academically I was incredibly average. The Government expected level for literacy, mathematics and science was level 4, and I got 4, 4, 5. I was always slightly better at the sciences. Funnily enough, my classmates always thought of me as rather clever. I've no idea what they got overall, but if they thought of me as one of the top 5 or so of the class, the average for my year must have been somewhat lower.

I don't really remember too many experiences. There was this really weird time during... year four, I think it was? During break one day, one of my acquaintances who I was playing with at the time. We were resting inside these hollow cube structures on the playground, and she propositioned me to play 'pretend sex'. Suffice to say I was taken aback, so I promptly said no and sorta made an excuse to leave. It was beyond strange.

I was actually a very active child; I loved the obstacle course set in breaks; I always made a habit to take over it and go round and round during breaks and I wish there was an adult version available. I did talk with my school friends, and I also enjoyed playing tag. I was a decent, if not spectacular runner, but I did make use of tactically shielding my friends from the catchers by drawing their fire. I was also fairly adept at jump rope, and towards my later time in Primary school picked up football to try and ingratiate myself with the football crowd of my year. I wasn't awesome at it, but I was alright.

But my favourite experience was playing prisoner dodgeball during French lessons. Once a week, our French teacher would take us outside and play prisoner dodgeball. It was great fun! There were a few variations (prisoners could only re-enter the game if a ball thrown over by their team, but they could pick up stray balls if the other side spectacularly fumbled) but it was a good, tactical game, and we didn't use hard balls, either.

I moved to a different place at the end of year six, Bournemouth, for my secondary schooling. It's also one of the few councils which still have an 11+ exam, which is usually taken towards the end of year six, but because I wasn't there, I didn't take it. This meant that I was pretty much at the bottom sets of classes and had to work my way up the pecking order, so to speak. I was again a fairly average student overall, but I got up to second top set for English, and second top set for Science. I sort of languished in the bottom of the middle sets for Maths.

It was an all-boys school, which makes it sound posh, but we were in special measures for the last two years, which gives you an indication of the relative quality. I mean, it wasn't terrible. But it could have been a better school.

Year seven went quietly enough, but year eight was when I first exhibited depressive behaviour, which continued and strengthened throughout the year. This rolled over into year nine, and it was only by year ten that I was back to anyway normal. It has affected my outlook, admittedly. My year ten - eleven persona wasn't depressive, as such, but I was far more introverted, and almost adult-like in maturity and outlook. I acted beyond my years, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Still, year ten and eleven was when my results improved substantially. I was definitely a late bloomer in terms of results.

Sixth form was better, and it was at a different school as my secondary . I had a good circle of friends (unfortunately, I only really keep into contact with two of them, I wasn't a core member) and I really excelled myself in participation, getting involved in the student leadership team. I actually formed my second circle of friends with that class, and we always ended up helping the school with whatever event they wanted to host. We were the workforce behind the running of awards evenings, sixth form events, etc. It was a tight knit group, and one I enjoyed.

I also enjoyed my classes, more or less. Forensic Science was... alright. I did get an A* in it, but I can't say I was terribly connected to it. Having said that, I played surrogate teacher many times for my classmates who struggled in the work. I especially enjoyed sociology however. It was never the best taught class, but it really gave me a sense of passion for the subject, and I ended up taking it for University.