From Baby Cub to Cub to Lone Wolf - Part 2

After completing my journey as a baby cub, I graduated to cub. I was no longer a baby. I was now 10 years old and moving on to secondary school.

The baby cub moves from a small pond into the big, bad woods. That was my experience anyway.

My mother chose the school that would take me — as in, the one that had spaces available. It wasn’t even super close to our home, to be honest, but that was the one she chose. I remember that I wanted to try to apply for Henrietta Barnett, but I was told that I wasn’t “smart enough”! I definitely was smart enough, but as a cub, I didn’t have that support, and it was easier to choose the path that was easier for my parents.

I went to a convent school — a school which was a seven-form entry, with 30 girls in each class. I remember the Year 7 classes being in the basement. We would spend our form times in that basement and then move to our other lessons (which, thankfully, were not in the basement!). I remember that bell so well. The bell would ring. We would get up almost immediately (control!) and move to our next lesson. I hated that bell. Moving around from class to class meant that you couldn’t really build a relationship with the teachers. They would see hundreds of different girls each day, and I was merely one of hundreds.

Again, the behaviour was awful in my school.

Teachers struggled with “controlling” a lot of the behaviour, and there was severe bullying going on too. This was just brushed under the carpet.

I was never asked — truly asked — how I felt about this secondary school. And when I was asked the ridiculous question, “How was your day?”, most of the time my mother was busy with the million things she had on her mind (survival).

As a cub, I didn’t have the guidance that I needed in order to even have a 1% chance of knowing what I wanted to do at 16.

I chose the “easiest” A-levels for me (I was, and still am, very talented with languages), so I chose those, and I chose English Literature. My GCSEs were good, but I know that they could have been exceptional. I know that I am an A* student — I just wasn’t given the tools to get there.

At home, my mother had her own things to deal with. My father died in a car accident when I was 11, and I now understand how hard it was for her. I didn’t then. I know she did the best that she could, given her situation and her circumstances.

But cubs need to be guided. A school alone cannot do that. And never, ever assume that a school alone can. That guidance comes from the home, regardless of which elite, top school you send your child to. Regardless of the hundreds of thousands of pounds that you choose to invest in your child’s education.

Read Part 3 to learn about the Lone Wolf.