When it comes to the online school day, I find it the most useful to stick to my routines. I wake up an hour before my first lesson so that I have enough time to get ready and have breakfast. This is similar to when I would be going to school as I would wake up an hour before leaving home. As I’m in sixth form, I have study periods which I try to make the best of.

Being completely honest, my productivity isn’t always 100%, but taking advantage of these study periods has definitely changed how early I can finish for the day. I am also finding that writing down my tasks for the day and the evening just helps me to ensure that I’m not forgetting anything and that everything is submitted on to the Google Classroom on time. It’s also important to ensure that I am spending time away from work and the screen. For this, I usually play board games or cards in the evenings with my family. It’s a bit of time for all of us to be away from our laptops. I also make sure that I don’t work after 6 in the evening.

This gives me the evening to myself to enjoy some mind numbing Netflix, catch up with friends on FaceTime or read a few chapters of a book. It also ensures that I am well rested for the day and a good way to avoid getting burned out. To make sure this happens, I only set myself around 3 or 4 tasks for the day, aside from the live lessons. They keep me occupied and on the ball, but don’t fatigue me too much. It would be a wasted opportunity to submit a piece for the newsletter without thanking all of my teachers for their continued support and persistence through this time.

Khushali Pabari, Year 13

In my opinion at first I found it very difficult to adjust to doing lessons at home. I would hate waking up so early to do work as I had fallen out of routine due to being at home and isolating for so long. As the weeks go by I am sort of starting to enjoy doing these lessons online. I would rather be at school, however, for safety, online school is the only way to keep safe at the moment. I am in year 12.

The subjects that I study are Law, Psychology and Economics. My law lessons have been the most interactive. For example, we played Kahoot as a starter for one of our lessons. I thought that it was fun and it was a great way for my class and I to revise. I’m sure that I wasn’t the only person who was struggling with starting up online school. To this day, I still feel unmotivated to get up some days and do my work. So to anyone else who is struggling with online learning, just know that you’re not the only one!

Overall, I just wanted to say that online lessons have been a new and hopefully wonderful experience for everyone and well done to everyone for waking up early, joining the classes and submitting work on time. We will hopefully be back to school shortly. Lastly, I hope everyone is keeping safe.

Nehal Pabari, Year 12 (Deputy Head Girl) 

It really is inspiring to hear about the maturity and positivity students are showing. The students being profiled in these articles demonstrate how we can all really make the most of any situation we face and we should feel encouraged to turn these situations into opportunities for us to do something really nice for ourselves.  I hope what they share inspires you to do something even more positive for yourself, as I’m sure you really deserve it!