My name is Zoe and I’m in Y8 and recently as you know we have been in lockdown. We did our school work online through two apps – Microsoft Teams and Class Charts. It’s been quite boring, but on 7th September we went back to school which I was quite excited about.
Before we returned to school in September, the school sent emails with attachments of new rules and regulations. We all have to wear face masks in school apart from in our classes and they advised us to stay socially distanced. Each year is mainly in one area and at break times and lunch we also have certain areas which we must stay in. I knew that it was going to be different, but I was very disappointed that we had to be in year group bubbles. To be honest, it was almost like starting school all over again in Year 7.
We (Y8) went in on 7th September and on the 9th every year went back into school. It was exciting to be back together with my friends but it was very different to Y7 as we were not allowed to interact with other years and we have all been colour coded (Y8 is red). One time I was talking to my friend in Y10 she used to be in my tutor group last year, but now we’re only in a tutor group with our year) and a teacher came up to us – though we were socially distanced – she told us that we couldn’t speak to each other because we were in different years.
Each year has a slightly different break so we rarely get to interact with other years and can only interact with people in our own year group. Also, we are only allowed to walk around in groups of six. We have to wear masks in busy areas and sometimes the teachers tell us that we need to be socially distancing but how can we when there’s like 200 people going to their next class! Also, with one year group on break and lunch it is often noisy and distracting in class.
In school, we have two sides – French and German. I’m on the French side and we don’t have any of the same classes with the German side apart from mixed tutor groups at the beginning of the day. I have enjoyed going back to school though after only two weeks, we have already been sent home because someone on the German side in Y8 has got coronavirus. A few children are in the tutor group of the boy who has coronavirus, yet all the French side got sent home as well.
So now I’m back to doing virtual school for two weeks. This is very sad because I was excited to get back to school but the rules have made it wayyyyyyyyyyyyy less fun. Also, now we’ve been sent home, I’m deeply disappointed because I can’t interact with my friends and we’re working at a slower pace with online school.
Even though going back to school has not been what I expected, I have enjoyed seeing my friends again face-to-face and going back to normal lessons for a bit. I know that God has a plan for everything and that he will protect people and I hope that he will help to find a cure and we can slowly ease back to normal life.
Zoe - Year 8 (age 12)