Celebrations

A

It was Nicky's idea, but we all think it's going to be brilliant. As soon as the last exams have finished, we're going to decorate the main hall at school with paper streamers and Chinese lanterns and things. Steve had this idea of projecting photos of everyone onto a wall, like a slide show. And we've got Jo's brother, who's a professional DJ, coming along. Then there are three different bands lined up to play. Ours is the best, because we've been together longest and we've got a great bass player, (coughs) although I say so myself, so we're on last. It's going to be cool.

B

Every year there's a carnival in August in London. You've probably heard of it, the Notting Hill Carnival? So this year, me and my friends are going again. We went last year and we had such a fantastic time. It's all Afro-Caribbean, with people in amazing costumes and these brilliant steel bands. We don't go in costume, but we do dance a lot. It does get quite crowded, so you have to make sure you stick together. And you have to watch out for pick-pockets when there are so many people in the same place. But it's really good fun; it's like London becomes a different country. Even the police dance sometimes.

C

We're going to hire a boat for the day and take it up the river. It's my grandparents' golden wedding anniversary, so the whole family is getting together. I'm really looking forward to seeing my cousins again. I haven't seen them for ages. We've got this huge picnic planned, with loads of different types of sandwiches and salads and an enormous cake. My dad has borrowed an ancient gramophone player, you know, what they had before CD players, and some old records. So as we go up the river we're going to listen to music from the time my grandparents got married – the swinging sixties!

D

Two of my best friends have their birthday in the same week, so some of us have decided to have a surprise party for both of them. One of my friends, Sandra, has a big house, and her parents say we can use it. They're going away, luckily. It's at the end of October, so we're going to decorate the house with Halloween things, you know, spiders' webs and spooky things. We're going to make up an excuse to get the birthday girls to come round to the house – say we're going to help Sandra move some stuff, or something. Then, as soon as Sandra lets them in, we're going to turn the lights out and jump out at them! We just have to make sure nobody mentions anything on Facebook and gives away the surprise.

E

There's a Royal Wedding in June – one of our princes is getting married – so it's a public holiday. Lots of people are having parties in squares and parks and places, and the people in our street decided to have one too. Well, it's a good excuse to have a party, isn't it? We're all going to take out tables and chairs and put them together in the middle of the road. We're going to stop cars coming through, obviously. We're all going to bring different dishes and share them round. There are quite a lot of different nationalities living on our street – people from India, China and different African countries – so the food should be really interesting. It'll be good to get to know more of the neighbours too.