Wesley Girls' High School on Wednesday "rolled the red carpet" for Form One students as the little girls, escorted by their visibly excited parents and guardians, entered the walls of the magnificent Wey Gey Hey to begin a three-year academic battle from which much is expected of them.
These small, small girls, 14 and 15 years old, might have been wondering what was in stock for them when they set off from various parts of Ghana to begin a new era, a very important chapter, in their schooling.
"I was apprehensive. I did not know what to expect because I have heard about experiences of new arrivals in certain school. They were not pleasant stories, the show of power by some seniors, the bullying" one told the GNA.
A parent said he took his boy to a school in Koforidua four years ago and a housemaster had a cane he surprisingly used on some of the Form One students.
"My boy got caned on his first day at senior high school and tears swelled in his eyes but I pretended I did not see it. It was a baptism of fire. I knew it was wrong but I said nothing. I held my cool," a parent told the GNA.
The welcoming ceremony at Wey Gey Hey was magnificent, well organized and executed with precision. Nothing was overlooked and surprisingly there were no mistakes. Staff, non-teaching staff and students were all involved and rolled out a welcoming ceremony that the first years would never forget.
The school was decorated in bunting and music blared in the dormitories. Some of the parents who have children in other senior high schools said the spectacle surprised them.
One said when she entered the compound with the daughter, she thought the school was preparing to have a big function like a speech day and it took her sometime to realize Wey Gey Hey was welcoming her daughter to the school.
"All the flags, all the decoration, all the music and all the dancing in the dormitories were meant to make my daughter, our daughters to feel at home and get down to serious business of studies. Thank you Headmistress, staff, non-teaching staff and students," the lady, who wants to remain anonymous, said.
There were no classes on Wednesday as the day was declared a holiday by an "Executive Instrument" the Headmistress signed.
The school's cadets, looking smart in their military uniforms, were prominent and executed their assignments with precision. They saluted parents as they drove in with their beloved daughters and directed them where to park.
The admission procedure was not performed as a mere formality, not as a ritual that is gone through every year. It was performed with passion and it took time. Every student was handled as an individual and made to take an oath to be a good student.
Following their formal admission to Wey Gey Hey and having been allocated Houses, the little girls were escorted "queenly" to their dormitories with fanfare and surprisingly, their seniors carried their suitcases and chop boxes.
"I was flabbergasted. Seniors carried my daughter's luggage," a parent said.
In the dormitory the form ones opened their suitcases and seniors checked their clothes to make sure they did not include things they were not supposed to take to school.
A parent walked down memory lane and said a little girl once told him "Daddy, your daughter is supposed to bring two white T-shits but she has brought four. Take two away."
The seniors really had time for the new arrivals. They taught them how to lay their beds, how to fold their clothes in their lockers and suitcases and lectured them about what to do and what not to do in the dormitories.
As these processes went on, music blared and students, some in fanciful attires, did their own thing, including Azonto, on stages they had mounted.
When the GNA enquired about the criteria that would be used to allocate the newest dormitory to students who would be interested, a student said there was balloting.
She said "there is no favouritism at Wey Gey Hey. There is no "whom you know" business here. There is absolute fairness."
An elated parent told the GNA that he was pleased with what he had witnessed and expressed the hope that his daughter would live, for the rest of her life, the Wey Gey Hey motto "Live Pure, Right Wrong, Speak True, Follow the King."
"As a Wey Gey Hey father, this is what I wish for all our Wey Gey Hey daughters including BEK, HMGA and PO. God Bless the Headmistress, staff and non-teaching staff and students of Wey Gey Hey," he said.