My encounter with lockdown as a student has had its ups and downs as you would assume. Being restricted to our homes with no outside social interactions with fellow humans is tough and goes against our human nature. Nothing compares with going to secondary school and experiencing the full secondary student life of interacting with friends and teachers. While a global pandemic has brought this all to a halt, I have been lucky enough to have a family that continues to support me during these uncertain times. As a boy who loves to game sometimes, you can get carried away and forget about the time and as I already mentioned by the time you finished gaming it can get very very late so to ensure that I keep my clear-mindedness I've tried to keep a sleep schedule as well as trying to go bed early so I can wake up early the next day. Organization and a good sleep schedule have helped me massively in attending all lessons on time and in an energetic state. It also keeps some sort of normality and I think that it helps for at least a few things to stay consistent for me because I believe that it's the consistency that has helped me keep a sense of normality which has played a major role in ensuring my sanity. Coming from the view of a student, the lockdown has been hard.

I doubt you could ever recreate the atmosphere of a classroom. I believe the classroom is where all children need to be currently, but some have taken this to improve and reflect upon themselves and I believe this time has been very advantageous for some. Lockdown has simply proven one point and that is schools in the UK need to change because a student is a human before they are a student and making a well-rounded human is more important. Year 11's this year left without doing their exams and the things that differentiate them are the skills they have gained. These are the skills you use in life and these are the skills that should be most important.

'Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world'

No person could have imagined that the academic year would have ended this way. The interruptions from the global pandemic obligation bring about a new normal in more ways than one. Online learning at home is most definitely one of them and although it comes with its concerns and challenges, it could be something we see more often shortly. When my school was closed, many classes were made to the shift online fairly quickly and this included most if not all of my 14 subject's (except P.E sessions). The experience was straight forward, with students being able to access sessions via a link sent to our school emails. The majority of the Microsoft teams classes were 45 minutes long so that the teacher had enough time to explain if anything was missed in the live class and to set up for the next live class. Alternatively, some sessions were recorded and posted on a zoom session and we were sent a link on Show My Homework and that was uploaded alongside the topic. This way, students could listen in their own time making the experience a lot easier.

Naturally, new experiences come with their challenges and adjustments. The main challenge for me was maintaining the same levels of discipline to my studies despite being at home. It is fairly easy to get distracted whilst being stuck at home with the entire family. Secondly, the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic has been another challenge in and of itself. There have been moments during this period where motivation and morale have been low. This is particularly due to the devastating implications and effects the virus has had on many thousands of people

By Ammar Mukarram