Dr Kristopher Lovell

It’s been a while since I recorded my thoughts on the ongoing global pandemic, and recently these thoughts have changed.

I started a new position as a PGCE student at the begining of September, and honestly, aside from having to wear a mask, you wouldn’t have thought that anything was going on. People weren’t social distancing, university based teaching was happening, and there was a distinct lack of masks being worn on public transport. With the introduction of the new tier system (which let’s be real here, probably isn’t going to have a positive impact at all), the virus has been thrust back into my vision.

Starting my work placement was a shocking experience, the sheer number of children all on top of one another in classrooms which are nowhere near big enough to accommodate a 2 metre radius. It’s no surprise that infection rates have been going up rapidly since the start of the accademic year, nor is it surprising that I am now having to self-isolate as I have presented symptoms of COVID-19 (for which I have been tested).

I honestly think that the impact that this enviornment will have on these kids in school is going to have a long lasting affect. They’re localised to one classroom all day, and then also contained within year group bubbles, the idea being that a positive case should only take out one year group, rather than the entire school. It makes sense to us, but I think the students are getting fed up with the virus.

They’re getting sick of being told to put their masks on, they’re getting sick of being told to disinfect their hands when coming and going. And I think this is leading to a number of behavioural problems. Unfortuantely I can’t go into too much detail about that.

The virus is ever present for the students, in fact, I am sure that my absence this week will have sparked a number of discussions and theories about whether I have COVID or not. In ever class that I observed last week, there were at least 5 questions or discussions relating to the virus; Key stage 4 students are concerned as to whether they’re going to be able to sit their exams in the summer (which following the Scottish decision to cancel their exams is a reasonable quesiton to ask). They’re asking whether we’re going to be going into another lock down. And we as staff haven’t got the answers to these questions, because we’re asking them to.

I forsee this level of uncertainty continuing well into the New Year.