My first year at Loretto, by Phillip Bueckendorf from Germany

I have been a boarder at Loretto since September 2007 when I came from Germany to Scotland. I am doing my AS and A2 levels in Business Studies, Maths and Physical Education. Also, I am a member of the Golf Academy. My commitment to golf is really high, therefore I practice a lot with the Golf Academy at Craigielaw Golf Club.

5 September 2007

It is my first day at Loretto. I have had a talk with the headmaster and I feel very nervous. It was not an easy decision to leave my nice city and school in Germany, but now there is no way back. But that is not so bad, because I am quite impressed by this new school.

12 September 2007

In my first days in Loretto I have noticed that I have to do much more work than at my old school. Prep can be about 2-3 hours a day and lessons are not easy because I can not understand everything.

1 October 2007

I play good golf, but I am totally struggling with the Scottish Links courses and therefore my scores are not as good as I expected.

13 December 2007

The winter starts. The weather is becoming worse like I expected. But I have to learn inside anyway, and I have my first exams soon; Math C1 as well as PE.

29 January 2008

All the winter exams are finished. C1 was quite easy but PE .....? No idea.

Now I have to wait for the results for quite a long time. That is totally new for me. At my old school exams were marked there and handed back within a few days.

2 March 2008

I had my first HMC match with the Golf team in the last month. Also we went to Spain last week. I won that match with 8 and 7. About 20 boys from the Golf Academy went the Desert Spring Resort in Spain. We had some really good days down there. And the weather was so nice!

Now I have to look forward for getting my first AS results.

1 May

I have to start the preparations for my last AS exams which are coming up soon.

The teachers are giving us loads of past papers. That is really good practice as well as discussing about difficult chapters of the stuff.

2 June

I have just finished my last exam. All of my friends, including me, are really happy to have finished all the exams. The general feedback from the exams is really positive because all of us were well prepared by the teachers.

Now we will enjoy the last half of the summer term. I will use the time to sharpen up my golf game because I have a lot of international championships in the next few months.