'Too much, too young'

1978 - All he wanted to know was why we were leaving school.

Outside the headmaster's office, in possibly one of the worst comprehensive schools in North London, Elaine and I wondered what we had done wrong. We were two sixteen year olds who had led a pretty quite life at school just getting on with it and yet now the Head wanted to see us. Suddenly, a younger but taller 13 year old red-headed hard looking girl came out of the Head's office and gave us a knowing smile as if she knew we must have done something at least as bad as what she had done. We hadn't but we were nonetheless called into the office. "So why are you two leaving us?" said the Head. We were surprised by the question. I was leaving because I couldn't stand the idea of doing my 'A 'levels in a school which I had never really liked and the local 'tech' had offered me a place to study. Elaine was leaving because she wanted to earn some money and she had a good job lined up. The Head wanted us to stay at school so the school could improve its 'A' level ratings. How strange.

We couldn't wait to get out of there and nothing he could say would stop us.