Ten Years. Nine lawnmowers.

In an assembly last week (I still go to school, don’t forget) I was staring at a big screen on which was displayed a photograph of ancient deeds dating back to 1614.
Our school is old, man!

I have seen this slide numerous times in recent years, and as someone who likes a bit of History, it does impress me. I have read many Philippa Gregory novels, and I know a little but about James 1, and when I realised he was on the throne when our school was started is mind blowing.
James 1 was the son of Mary Queen of Scots. Everyone has heard of her, the poor French beauty who lived as a prisoner for years, was separated from her young baby, maltreated by men for their own gain and terrified her cousin, Queen Elizabeth 1, so much that she (Mary) was eventually beheaded so that she was no longer equipped with a brain to cause any trouble.
But I digress.

Our school has a long history; today it is a comprehensive secondary, with all of the rich and varied delights that such schools contain, but back in its day, it was more exclusive.

As I was looking at the image of these deeds I realised that our school is 410 years old! But it seems like only yesterday, when we were looking at secondary schools for Little Seymour #1 and attending all of those obligatory open events in 2014, that the school was celebrating turning 400, and still occupying the Elizabethan buildings it had presumably started in back at its inception in 1614.

Now, in The Year of Our Lord 2024, Number One has been there and done seven years of school – and then some. Number Two has left her GCSEs behind her. Even Boy and Mini are charging through the ranks and I realise it is over twenty two years since I first set foot in the building where I now work.
Where the flip has the time gone?
Ten years.
In that decade, Number One has sat SATS, CATS, GCSEs, A Levels and developed a passion for theatre which started in Year 6 and has endured. She is an adult now, doing her own thing in a new place but back then, she was starting out, taking the buses with trepidation, barely surviving Year 7 camp, dressing up for World Book Day (poor kid), watching endless episodes of H2O Just Add Water and getting to grips with “Show My Homework”.

Number Two was in Year Two in 2014, still at Key Stage 1! Boy had just started school and Mini Seymour, who now applies makeup before school every single flippin’ day, was little more than a toddler.

Back in 2014, we had just started living in our previous funny bungalow – and it still had a roof. The Shed was being used a classroom in Cambridgeshire, waiting for us to buy it on ebay, rebuild it in our garden and move in. There were so many adventures yet to play out, including but not limited to: one house demolition, four big birthdays, six car changes, five television appearances, a broken leg, three MRI scans, nine blog years, various pet dramas, a few parties, many musicals and the curious acquisition of nine lawnmowers*. 

As I stood in that assembly hall and realised how much time has elapsed between learning that the school was 400 years old, and then realising in a blink it’s now 410, I became quite overcome as I looked down at the rows of eleven year-olds who are all now younger than my own kids.

I went home and counted my wrinkles.

But there is a silver lining to the tempus fugit situation that I always feel at the beginning of September with the arrival of the new academic year – it is to be expected. Another year rolls on, and a small amunt of panic sets in. But I am very lucky. There have been some low points over the last ten years, but on the whole, they have been AMAZING. We’re still here, plodding along, doing our thing. And let’s not forget, I am the joint owner of nine lawnmowers. Therefore… #blessed.

*Only Big Seymour knows why.