FOR THE GIRLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 29, 4 February 1933, Page 16 (Supplement)

FOR THE GIRLS.

SCHOOL DAY 6 AND PLAY DAYS

'FLYING UP" TO HIGH SCHOOL.

My Dear Girls, — /Are the holidays really over? I can hard.'r believe it—two, four, fi a las the six weeks of freedom and fun have slipped by all too quickly, and now the great, the all-important subject once again is schools • All your letters have been full of it this week—new standards, new schools, new teachers the fun of "flying up" from primary school to hifh school. Many of you, I know, have started the routine of the school year already, but high schools and colleges do not recommence until next week, and, as I know so very many of my readers are setting o£f to high school next week, this is really an extra special little letter to them. It is such a splendid experience, you know—l envy you all your first year at high school. In the first place the exciting preparations, all the odds and ends that, amazingly enough, are included in the scbool uniform house shoes, street shoes, sandshoes, street frocks, drill frocks, c „ a p bags, nail brushes. Such fun, too, discovering that No. 13 is your very own locker, and No. 20 your boot box. And then foilow the first few bewildering weeks weeks consisting of new friendships and new ideas W eeks filled to the brim, every minute crammed to overflowing with something new and strange and delightful. For a secondary school or college is as different from a primary school as the proverbial chalk from cheesc. One is initiated suddenly into tha exciting game of learning languages. Fascinating new subjects—sewing, debating, drill, dancing—. these and others are introduced. One becomes familiar with form reps, captains, prefects, all unknown in primary school days. It is so novel, so utterly exciting. And, girls, before closing, just a word for those to whom high school is not new this year. Remember, do, that a "new girl" can be the loneliest and unhappiest soul in the school if she is shy or timid, if she Jacks that easy friendliness of manner, that ability to make friends that is characteristic of most school girls of to-day. Spare her a thought, a friendly word; give her a helping hand and try to make things a little easier until she is familiar with the school routine. It is little enough, after all, but to a very lonely, very shy girl, swallowed up in a big school of three or four hundred girls, it will mean every- . thing in the world. . Good luck to you, girls, and may this coming I. school year be brimful with happiness for you all. {Ji/