By Megan Mansfield Who says teenagers spend their days sleeping, playing on their X-boxes and hanging out on street corners? A group of girls from Surbiton High School Sixth Form have no time for any of those things with their gruelling rowing timetable. Megan Mansfield, Ellie Roberts, Lorna Stuart, Becky Thompson, Grace Prigmore and Frankie Hughes are lucky to watch half an hour of television a week with the amount of time spent at Molesey Boat club or at school. Monday is the day of rest- from rowing, but the pressure is on to get school work done so we don't get too behind during the intensive week ahead. An early night is essential to prepare for the 5 am get up on a Tuesday morning. Yes, you read it right, 5am, to be at the club at 6am for a session on the river before school. This is the hardest day of the week because by the time we reach the lessons after lunch we find ourselves fighting to keep our eyes open!

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday sessions follow straight after school until 6:30. We are usually out on the river- weather permitting - but one or two sessions a week we are on the ergos (rowing machines) or doing a core circuit of some kind. Not all of us go to the Thursday session because it is a circuit at the Hampton school gym and it can't hold all of us. The people who go find it extremely tough! "It's really hard but you come away feeling good about yourself and know that you've worked really hard." says Frankie Hughes.

Most people look forward to the weekend so they can have a lie in and go out with their friends, for us that's not the case. We do get a lie-in on a Saturday until 7:30 as opposed to 7. We have to be at the boat club at 8:30 promptly for a water session. We then get a short break at about 10 and are back out for another session finally finishing at 12. By this time we are exhausted but must get back home then work solidly to catch up from the week. We rarely go out on a Saturday anymore even when we do we have to pay the consequences on a Sunday as we have to be at the club at 7am and don't finish until 12. In total that's 7-8 sessions in a week on top of school work. Although this all sounds arduous it is definitely worth it. In the summer, there is the National Schools Regatta where school from all over the British Isles congregate to compete for the highest accolade available to junior rowers. We competed in an eight with two other girls, Lucy Bott from Tiffin Girls School and Imogen Stringer who used to go to Surbiton but is now at Lady Eleanor Holles. We won Gold Medal beating the likes of Headington (a big rowing boarding school) so we really felt the training had been worthwhile - "Winning at National Schools was a fantastic achievement, it was a moment I will never forget" says Lorna Stuart. Basking in the excitement of that success we are hungry for more trophies so will step it up this year to improve.

As we row from Molesey Boat Club we are constantly surrounded by Andy Hodge and the other Olympic rowers from the club. Having these encouraging people to aspire to, together with the huge amount of participation from all ages, really creates an amazing atmosphere at the club. Ellie Roberts said "To be working alongside the most esteemed athletes in the country is an inspiration for myself and my squad to achieve greater things in the coming season."

Hopefully this article will open your eyes, stop you from stereotyping teenagers as there are many more like us who are working really hard to get to where they want to be in the future, academically and with sport or music.