I'm delighted to present the first article written by a member of our on-the-spot prom reporting team. The lovely Atif Ali has written all about the Small Heath School Prom for the class of 2010, so without any more ado, here's Atif's report.
Thanks Atif!
SMALL HEATH SCHOOL PROM 2010
When I started secondary school in 2005 the idea of going to prom didn’t even cross my mind. Furthermore it also didn’t cross my mind that it would be a big part of my life in the last year of school, never mind remain in my heart for undoubtedly the rest of my life.
It was around about the start of this year when it was confirmed that the idea of prom happening this year was going to become reality. I remember thinking about what I was going to wear and how it’d be like 7 months in advance!
1 week before Prom
Now it was the 1st July and I had finally bought all of my prom clothes and accessories. I still couldn’t believe that in 7 days it would be Prom and school life would be coming to an end.
I remember thinking ‘hold it together Atif’. So that’s what I did!
I was going to make this the best prom of Small Heath School!
3 days before Prom
It was the 5th July, and I had got 4 friends together to help out with an idea that I’d come up with.
The idea was to create a ‘backdrop’ which fellow students/friends would use as a background to photos they were going to take on the day.
So for the full day we put our heads down and ended up with something awful!
I spoke to a teacher Mrs Usman about it and we ended up arguing about changing the whole ‘backdrop’ idea but I was persistent about not changing it, in the end however it was changed but not until the final day…
PROM DAY!- 8th July 2010
Venue: Bia Lounge Time: 6PM-9PM
I was so excited I woke up at 9am even though prom wasn’t until 6 in the evening.
I spent most of Prom Day running around sorting out ‘my beautiful backdrop’. I was looking forward to putting it together and I remember saying to myself ‘stick to what you wanted to do, don’t listen to everyone else’.
However this would later turn out to count for nothing. It was 3 hours before Prom and Mrs Mckee, Mrs Usman, Anisa, Awaas, Bushra, Halima and I were all at the venue blowing up balloons, sorting the backdrop and generally decorating the place as much as possible.
As Mrs Usman, Anisa and me were trying to put the backdrop together they kept saying ‘it would look nice Atif it we cut the stickers out instead of sticking them like that’. Deep down I knew they were right but I wasn’t going to budge; this was my idea and I was going to do what I wanted to do! In the end I just went along with what they said however the last word was always going to be mine!
3 hours to go till Prom
I set off from the venue, when I got home there must have been about 2 hours to go – plenty of time to change – or was it? I remember my mum saying ‘Atif do this do that’ for an hour!
There was just one hour left and I finally got into the shower and had a trim. ½ hour to go till Prom which was at 6, I knew I was going to be late. I ironed my shirt which took 15 minutes! 15 minutes to do my hair and put on my clothes? I knew I was going to be late. So I started on my hair and was done by 6PM! Great I was late to Prom!
I put my clothes on, sprayed some perfume on and got out the house by 6:15 I must have arrived by 6:30 PM with the sound of Jay Sean Ride It was blasting in the car I was in. As soon as I arrived I remember one of the teachers saying ‘C’mon Atif we’ve been waiting for you’ which I must admit made me feel special.
The Prom!
I went inside Bia Lounge, our prom venue. Something stunned me: a DJ with music playing and two fellow students sitting down like they were watching him play.
A friend, Zain approached me as I went further in and I remember saying ‘what the hell is going on? This is prom, you don’t sit down, get everyone up!’
By 7 o'clock 9 out of 10 students were dancing, from the ‘geeks’ to the ‘gangsters’ which was a real achievement. Although I would like to take the credit, all credit goes to the DJ!
From 7- 7:30pm we had awards. Congratulations to Prom King and Queen; Khasad Ali and Rehana Kauser although I still believe I should have won Prom King, Next year eh?
Half 7 to 8pm was eating, personally I hated the food and didn’t eat most of mine, although people were going for seconds not mentioning any names (Mr Deaves).
8pm was when the DJ started the Music! 1 hour of non stop dancing – we were going to rock this dance floor by we I mean from everyone including Imran (receptionist) to Deputy Head Mrs Wilson.
8pm to 8:30 pm were the loudest most amazing times of times of my school career but it wasn’t over – we still had 30 minutes and we were going to use them wisely. I called over Hashim and said to him lets grab all the teachers from Mr Deaves (Head of DT) to Mrs Midworth ( Assistant Head) and at first they refused but this time I wasn’t going without a fight. In the end we had Mrs Wilson, Mrs Midworth, Mr Deaves, Mr Bhugvandeen, Imran, Nadeem, Mrs Kumar, Mrs Mckee & Mr Mohammed all on the dance floor!
8:30-9pm was incredible, fantastic, amazing, brilliant and not forgetting LOUD! We danced to everything, from YMCA to Bhangra.
I was enjoying every moment of it and I wasn’t going to stop! I was dancing with Mrs Wilson showing her how to dance.
9pm and it was over!
Small Heath School Prom for Class of the Decade was over and boy I was an emotional wreck but I kept it together. I was actually lost for words; I couldn’t describe this feeling, it was happiness and a sad feeling both in one.
All I could remember saying to myself was ‘I feel sorry for anyone who didn’t come tonight because they missed out on one of the best nights of their school careers’.
A feeling that I never thought I’d experience with a school had hit me; the feeling of pride. I was proud that I chose Small Heath School as my secondary school and I was proud of what had been achieved that night. The idea of making prom night the best night of our school lives had finally been made reality!
Atif Ali
Small Heath School
Class of 2010
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It's not too late to send us an article about your school prom – we'd like to post them over the whole summer. So if you want to show off your writing on your university application, or just get the kudos of being a published reporter (and a little thank you pressie from us too), check out the details in this post and drop us a line!
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