Flolone Secondary School takes eight hundred chosen students to an island and promises to make them leaders. The first three chapters of the account are free to read.
An island school that ranks every one of its students.
Flolone selects eight hundred students across four years, moves them to an island, and ranks each of them within their year. The banner over the stage reads Listen and be Heard, Follow and You Shall Lead. The plaque under it reads Adequacy Equals Mediocrity. When a new principal arrives with a demerit points system, some students begin keeping records of their own. Classroom Warfare is their account.
It was the start of a new year, but to Cam it did not feel like a new day.
Spectacles or hair clips in any colour but black or navy blue.
ONE DEMERIT+
Accumulation
Punishments grow more severe. Rank points are deducted.
SEVERITY RISES211
Rank
Rank decides your lessons, your teachers’ attention, and your standing among friends. Levels hold 208 to 211 students.
EVERYONE KNOWS THEIRS
Standing still is a recognised corrective. Moving adds five minutes.
Student Records
The students
Eight hundred students, across four years, live on the island. Assembly is at 6.30 every morning; classes run from 7.30 to 3.30, followed by supplementary lessons, chores and revision until nine at night; lights out is at 10.30. Each student is ranked within their level, and the rank decides which lessons they attend and how the teachers treat them. In his first year, no one from Cam’s class skipped a lesson.
SENIORS
JUNIORS
STAFF
The staff live and work on Floor 8, above the dormitories. They set the schedule, mark the rankings and carry out the punishments. Miles warns every newcomer: “The teachers pick favourites.”
The Grounds
One building, nine floors and a basement.
LISTEN AND BE HEARD, FOLLOW AND YOU SHALL LEADfollow and you shall follow
ADEQUACY EQUALS MEDIOCRITY
Designation on file: storage.
"Well… yes, it is an area for storage and occasionally punishments. But those cases are very rare. The people who get those punishments always deserve it."
storage of what?
Staff rooms to the right. Teachers’ living quarters to the left.
"We do not go up there unless it is really something urgent... Always check with a Student Councillor first if you have an emergency to go up."
Ten to fourteen students per room.
"We become very close with whoever we stay with."
Ten to fourteen students per room. Grey iron wardrobes, issue uniforms.
"Boys stay on level 6. And girls are on Level 7."
Blue plastic chairs, blue plastic tables, wooden stools. Felt boards displaying the names of high performers and national award winners.
"It looks boring, but it is nicer when everyone is in here together."
her name is on both boards. she stopped looking at them.
Library. Three science laboratories. Three spare classrooms. School clinic. CCA rooms; the Music Club shares the dance studio, its room having been converted to a physics lab.
"Level 4 is mainly research rooms."
Classrooms exclusively; bathrooms at either end of each floor. Corridor boards carry quotations from great leaders and inventors: Gandhi, Jobs, Einstein, and former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
the quotes drift over everyone’s heads like stray birds. her words. she was right.
The cookhouse: yellow plastic tables and benches in rows, silver canisters, duty roster. The main hall: laminated brown floors, the founder’s portrait, the yellow banner over the stage.
"This is where we gather for meals and assembly in the morning, and even so, it is spacious."
Indoor Sports Hall, newly renovated, with space for futsal. Kitchen. Storage. Engineering room.
"Here we have the Indoor Sports Hall, Kitchen, storage and Engineering room."
two cooks feed six hundred. thed has questions about the kitchen.
Orientation tour conducted by G. (Student Council, vice president). Juniors are reminded that queries regarding upper-floor access are to be directed to a Student Councillor first.
breaks in orange. eat, shower, wash clothes. pick two.
“In life, you always have to choose between the carrot and the steak. Steaks are always tasty, but they are unhealthy. While carrots are not as pleasant to eat, they are good for you.”Principal Cole · Welcome Address · Chapter 1
The First Days
A new principal arrives with a new system.
001
Principal Cole announces the demerit system at first assembly.
002
The schedule goes up. Breaks are highlighted in orange.
003
Two scholarship boys arrive and learn the real rules over lunch.
004
Gael leads the orientation tour. It stops at Level Eight.
005
A junior asks about Floor Nine. She is told those cases are very rare.
006
New chapters are released every Sunday at 6.30am.
Read the Account
Eight hundred students, a rank for each of them, and one account of what happened.
CLASSROOM WARFARE — BOOK ONE · The first of three.
CLASSROOM WARFARECOVER UNDER REVIEWRAM JEEVAN VINOD
Status · Pending
The complete account has not yet been lodged with any bookseller. Publication arrangements are in hand. Until then, chapters 1 to 3 remain free to read.
