I’m still amazed that nobody flushed my head down the loo on my first day at big school

As his daughter prepares for her first term in secondary education, Will Gore wonders if anyone gets their lunch money nicked any more

This week many children will be starting secondary school – cause for apprehension on Will’s part (PA)

As a child, I usually felt ready to return to school by the time the summer holidays came to an end. Even though my family tended to spend a fortnight of the break away from home, the six weeks still seemed to go on forever. When we weren’t away, my brother and I played in the garden, fought, and watched as much kids’ TV as was available in the 1980s and early 1990s. By the time September came, I couldn’t avoid the conclusion that I was bored.

That’s not to say I was exactly jumping for joy about getting back into the classroom, but for the most part any pre-term butterflies were as much about the excitement of seeing friends and settling back into the old routine as they were about nerves for a new year starting.

The only exception I can recall was during the summer before I started secondary school, when I became progressively sicker with anxiety as the weeks went on.