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Students relay what it's really been like working from home

Regular columnist, secondary school student Daisy Dewsnap, talks to fellow students about learning remotely...

Earlier this year many schools had to shift their classes and teaching resources online due to the coronavirus outbreak, my school being one of them. 

For many months, students worked from home and submitted their home learning via Microsoft Teams. 

For some this was an exciting experience as they enjoyed the freedom of the school day and having the opportunity to work at their own pace.

Some students made comments about the environment in which they were working, stating that it was much more laid-back and informal than their usual classroom. They also described that they found they were able to take more breaks as and when they found necessary, which improved their mental health and enabled them to de-stress more frequently. But for others, this experience was very challenging and difficult, a few students mentioned that concentration was difficult and they were easily distracted as well as suffering from a lack of motivation. 

They also spoke about the difficulty of not having a connection with teachers face-to-face which provoked much more independence and self-sufficiency for their learning. 

For this article, I spoke to a few students about their opinions on how they found the process of learning from home. 

A poll answered among students revealed that 54 per cent of them preferred working from home, however 46 per cent would rather be in school. 

I spoke to three students, each with their own views on how working from home went for them.

The first student that I spoke to said: “For me, online school wasn’t too bad. The lessons were well made and didn’t seem rushed at all, and having a teacher that you can message privately was very useful. 

“While I obviously missed my routine and my friends, I found that I got more work done when we were doing online school than work at school. 

“Many people that I knew were finding it harder to work at home as they were getting distracted constantly, however, I got distracted less at home and found it easier to continually work for a long period of time, but I did think that finding the motivation to start working was much harder.”

Another student commented by saying: “Over lockdown from March to July, I found work fairly straightforward after getting into a solid routine. However, after we came back and were promptly thrust back into isolation, I found it more difficult. 

“For me, I think the reason I found home learning in October so straining was because we were given a glimpse back into what school used to be like, only to have it taken away and for us to be isolated from family and friends once again. 

“Even simple things such as going for a walk or cooking something time-consuming in the evening began to feel much more taxing. 

“I think lethargy was a big part of that, but also feeling mentally drained from seven or eight hours work every day made everything feel harder. 

“Overall, I’m extremely thankful that school can be mostly back to normal – even though it doesn’t always exactly feel natural.”

The third student told me: “During lockdown I, overall, found the work helpful and am extremely grateful for it. However I thought that before video lessons the work was sometimes repetitive and there was too much of it. 

“I believe that a little more contact with home would have been nice, though as a whole I believed the school did a great job.”

Personally, I think that I learnt a lot during the months we were off; not just about the curriculum, but about myself too. 

I felt that I really benefitted from a more flexible daily routine, which enabled me to take more time for myself and my health as well as keeping a balance of this with my studies. 

The main problem that I found was that my expectations of myself were far too high and this made me doubt how much I was achieving and progressing each day.

Overall, each person’s opinion of this time period differed from one another. While some pupils thrived during the remote learning and through the new circumstances, others found it much more challenging. 

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