Lakeside Days

Being a person who suffers from Autism/Aspergers syndrome I ended up in a school for autistic children and teenagers, one of the departments at the site in question was the Lakeside area which was for the post 16-19 students, for myself and others this was a blessing from being away from the mainschool area as it also meant that we no longer needed to wear the horrible school uniforms which back in the day was a bright yellow polo shirt with blue lettering on it plus the crest & then the sweatshirt was royal blue with yellow lettering on it and the school crest. The crest was updated in early 2010 but I managed to avoid needing to purchase new shirts so never wore the uniforms with the new crests applied. Depending on the gender it was then either black trousers or a skirt with black school shoes. Since then it's been hugely upgraded with a 3rd crest and a new colour scheme, myself and a large number of other students including those in the student council appealed about having a change of the design plus a better colour scheme multiple times during our days in mainschool (00's) but every time the application was rejected by senior management.

For the Lakeside area you could now wear your own clothes which to me was a blessing as there is nothing worse than having to wear what was one of the worst school uniforms ever as not only did it make people look like overgrown pre-school students but it wasn't a cool look for people who were in their late teens & I was one of the teenagers who liked to keep up a good appearance but it wasnt possible while wearing that f***ing uniform as some stuff I wasnt allowed to wear (neck pieces, mens bracelets, etc). I cant show photos of what the uniform looked like but believe me it was really bad. The final year of being a transition student wasn't an enjoyable one as while myself and two other mates still had to wear them for one more year most of the other people we properly knew were were at the time 17 or were approaching that age so they went to the Lakeside department having moved there in Sept 2009 so they got to wear their own clothes. But fortunately the 2009-2010 academic year went by quickly and eventually by Jul 2010 that torturous year was finally over. Not too long before the end off the academic year there was a Lakeside induction week for T3 students where for a whole week we were allowed to go into Lakeside for a taster week of what we were to expect from September. Myself and Callum were both put into FE1 for the induction week so it meant I got to be classmates with Claire and Hanzi & also the one time I was in the same class as Sarah and Lauren. The other positive of this week was that we were also allowed to wear our own clothes all week and not need to wear the god awful uniform at all. For students in T1 & T2 though it was basically a normal week for them with the normal lessons as they wouldn't be moving into Lakeside at the end of this academic year so they ended up having to keep wearing the school uniform.

Eventually a few days later it was the end of the academic year and for the final day id decided to stick to a long known school tradition of having a school shirt of mine signed by both students who were leaving Lakeside for pastures new as their 3 years were up, but also by our classmates for next year and the Transition students we would be leaving behind (the latter being the ones who would wish us good luck in Lakeside). Unlike those who would wear the shirt and have people sign it while they were wearing it I chose to carry it around with me and get students to sign it, the number of messages I had written on it was just incredible & as was mentioned in a previous blog here are some of the messages that were left by people.

Be good! By Sarah

C u in Lakeside! By Hanzi

Good luck in Lakeside, x By Lauren

Wishing you all the best at your new college. By Kate

Have fun in there. By Adam D

Good Luck David. By Christian

To Dave The Rave All The Very Best. By Jim

Lakeside is where you belong, Good Luck. By Emily

&

Best wishes to a very nice young man. Good luck to you David. By Adrian

End of the day it was a job of changing out of the shirt id worn that day and then putting on the signed one for when we were leaving & the one id worn that day which was unsigned I dumped on the shelf in the cloak room as I didn't need it anymore. Aside from still having the signed shirt stored away somewhere unused the remainder of the shirts and all of the sweatshirts that were inside the wardrobe went onto the bonfire as I wanted rid of them ASAP.

Sept 2010 came along and now it was the start of the no uniform era, being re-united with those who had left us behind the year before was another real positive as it officially meant that the 2008/09 transition gang was back together. When it came to the induction week before the summer holls with the classes we were put into these would normally be the ones that we would be based in after the holidays. For me I was to remain in FE1 as one of their new students (effectively took over the space left vacant by Sarah), but fellow induction student Callum instead went down to FE2. FE1 as it was then known before changing after we'd left was one of the two classes located in the new building which been completed only a year previous & unlike mainschool where 1 was the lowest ranking class & 7 was the highest (later reduced to 6 after class 1 got axed as FE1 needed the class owing to space issues, this being before the new Lakeside College was built), in Lakeside it was the reverse. FE5 was the lowest ranking for the students who needed the most help while FE1 was the top class for the most independent students who needed very little help & I was one of the 7 people placed in it that year (I would infact never change classes again and I remained as an FE1 student right through to my departure in Jul 2013). Alongside the major positive of now being able to wear my own clothing aswell as experiment with new outfits and wear the jewelery that I liked I also got to be re-united with two of my bezzie fellow former Transition students who moved into Lakeside the previous September & I got put into the same class as the two of them, these two my absoulte fav classmates Hanzi & Claire. There would also be other privilidges: heading out into the community on Mondays to go shopping and have lunch out (it differed days wise per class), going on daytrips that mainschool students couldn't do, the residential trips away to Tyn-Dwr at Llangollen for FE1 to 3 students (these being over 3 days, e.g arrive Tue & return on Thu), being more free to explore the grounds as we didn't need to be behind a fence when outside during our break's but also in the case of the IT work I managed to land a place as an editor for the newsletter & I got to join the CADCAM course in designing products (clocks, jigsaws, etc).

All these positives made it look like Lakeside was a brilliant place to be in, unfortunately however there were some negatives. As I said earlier during the Lakeside induction week my fellow classmate Callum instead went down to FE2 instead of going into FE1, but in his place in FE1 a student from FE2 was moved up to FE1 for his second year and both of us in question weren't too happy about this as even during our Transition days I'd disliked him and he'd massively disliked me (even as of 2022 this is still the case following a friend's wedding), fortunately during the 2008/09 year when we were all still in Transition we were in seperate classes so things weren't as bad but this time we were now both in the same class as each other to both of our disgusts. However we knew we were gonna have to make the best of a bad situation and try to get through the 2010/11 year without killing each other. Sometimes we got on well with each other when certain things would happen including when we did drama rehersals but most of the time we were holding back from having each other by the throat. Fortunately this was to only last for one year as by Jul 2011 he got demoted back to FE2 for his final year (2011/12) while I remained in FE1 for my 2nd year but even my 2nd year wouldn't go off without issues. Although C Olive replaced J Marks in FE1 and we got reunited with the rest of the Transition gang from 2009/10 as they were moving up to Lakeside from Transition, a new student called C Pepper was also placed into FE1 and almost instantly things started to go wrong. For a starter he got a massive crush on Hanzi and he would try and keep her to himself, with his behaviour he also instantly became extremely unpopular with the rest of the students in Lakeside especially myself as he kicked off at people for trying to go near Hanzi or even speak to her. It's through this which strained the friendship between myself and her to the point where we are now and haven't seen or spoken to each other since 2012. And it was also the same story with a number of other students where their friendships with Hanzi were strained and then severed thanks to Pepper.

But the worst of it was Pepper had an extremely violent temper (I thought my anger was bad but I never attacked people & his was much much worse), he would attack people without warning and when something didn't go right for him he would throw a tantrum and loose his temper & the first student he would see he would then try to attack which for one almost resulted in a broken arm & for another almost a broken nose. As a result a number of people ended up with bruises and cuts thanks to his attacks but senior management at that time wouldn't do anything about it as they claimed that he would eventually settle down and mature, boy were they massively wrong. Normally the policy is for people who kept acting like this in school's and college's they would get a suspension and then if it continued expulsion, senior management however did nothing to control him and didn't suspend him or even exclude him yet a few years earlier someone else did get excluded for this similar behaviour. This bullying by him towards others would only get worse during my final year (2012/13) and he kicked up one of the biggest tantrums after I was awarded the CADCAM shield rather than him and he wasn't happy at all when I rejected his request to become assistant editor for the newsletter (this being the one time I could have some peace and quiet away from him & I knew he wouldn't do the job properly or worse even delete my writeups). I was supposed to take on someone to train up as my replacement in the editor job but there was no way I was going to let it be Pepper who would replace me & even Adrian was backing me up. It's unknown what happened to him after I departed but Adrian did confirm that Pepper was not allowed to even be editor after id left. Alongisde this according to a fellow former student he got the comeuppance he'd deserved as he was apparently caught seeing another persons girlfriend and he ended getting beaten up for it. Had he arrived at Wargrave a number of years earlier he could've been dealt with better and wouldn't have been as violent plus been more popular among students, but sadly given the time he arrived plus the reputation he had and what would follow his arrival came too little too late. I dont know if he's changed his ways now after what he had happen where he was beaten up, but after how I got treated horribly by him aswell as how he behaved to my fellow Lakeside classmates and also my best friends he's one person I never want to see ever again.

Aside from the negatives Lakeside was a decent place to be in and you felt like you were treated like an adult rather than like a child which was mostly what it was in mainschool.

Stay tuned for future posts

Mr Moyle