Y7 Experience: The First Week at Phorms:

Date:
We asked some of our Year 7 students to give a brief overview of the highlights from their first week at school. You can see below some examples from our students: 

"The best start I could ever have: as a new Year 7 student at Phorms it was a really nice surprise to go on a kayaking trip with all the students, knowing none of them. I think it was the best way to come closer to all and make new friends. On a very sunny day we had a lot of fun and joy. We laughed, we played, and we stayed dry at least the most of us ?  
That was my best first day at school so far with beautiful memories as well."  
 

"Since 2nd  Grade I loved learning about history! Now having history in the Gymnasium, I was very excited and a little nervous. Our first lessons went off very well! Ms. Ratko, our teacher, was very kind. She introduced herself with a really nicely designed Power Point and let us fill out a sheet with her questions to us. After that, Ms. Ratko told us that our first unit is the middle ages! I was really excited about it since I don’t know much, and I was willing to learn! In another lesson we watched a learning video about the middle ages. Ms. Ratko also talked through it a little, so it is more fun and easier to understand. We also had our first group presentation about important things in the middle ages which was a really fun opportunity for us! I am looking forward for even more things we can see and learn in history!" 
 
 It’s a tradition at Phorms Secondary for all Year 7 students to write a ‘letter to themselves’ they will open six years later when they have finished school with their Abi. The school principal, Frau Hardt, keeps the letters in the school safe and we worked out that the students will see their letters again in 2026! Here is what one student wrote about this experience: 
 

"At first I thought it would be hard to write a letter to ourselves because I thought I wouldn’t know what to write but in the end it was really easy to write the letter. I think it’s a great idea that we write a letter to ourself in 7th grade because it will be a great memory of the first week in Gymnasium. I also think that we will be very happy that we have this letter of ourselves because it will remind us of when we were younger. I think it would have been great if we also did that in primary school. I think every school should do that as a reminder of our younger selves!" 
 

"In Sport we were starting with hockey. We all sat in our class and Mr. Lipton came in and introduced himself. After that, we all went to our changing room. When we were finished changing, we went out to the red sport pitch. Then we started to do some drills. That was very fun because Mr. Lipton is very nice to everybody. Then at the end of the lesson, we started playing games against each other. Then sports was over and it was very fun."