Courier Autumn

Page 25 Student Reflections on Lockdown Thoughts on online learning During lockdown, students were asked to continue with lessons online. This was done through Google Classroom, Sparx (a website for maths home learning) and Google Meet sessions. The work was set mostly once or twice a week for each subject, and once completed was required to be emailed or submitted to your class teacher. Although we were not able to attend school, this work allowed us to still be challenged. Personally, I think that not having as much interaction with other students and teachers within a classroom made the work more difficult. However, work was still marked and reviewed during Google Meets, which did help if you had struggled with the work. Before lockdown, six months of no school would probably sound amazing to most, but I think we are all glad to be back. Harry Matthews Being back at college After a whole term of doing schoolwork in our homes during the lockdown, we have finally been back on site for the first half-term of the academic year; working in the classrooms with our teachers. It's not all back to normal though, like so many other things, as there are Coronavirus precautions that have been put in place to keep the school safe and open. The main difference is that each year has been grouped together as a bubble, with its own section of the school to have lessons, break time and lunch in, to minimise contact between years. For my year (Year 10) we have been given the huts around the back of the school, mostly humanities rooms, as our area. I think we got quite lucky, we have pretty large classrooms and a nice outdoor space, the only slight issue is that the rooms are often cold, as we need to keep the doors and windows open for ventilation. Spending time working in them come mid-winter will be interesting! Being back in actual lessons is great for me and my GCSEs. They are virtually the same as before other than science classes which would usually happen in a lab, but Year 11's bubble takes up all but 2 of them, meaning we don't get to do as many practicals we would otherwise, or at least we have to wait for a lab slot to do them. Apart from that there are only a few small differences, like teachers moving around the classroom less and having to order lunch before school starts and pick it up from the lunch station in your bubble if you want a hot meal. All in all, the bubble system is pretty good! Jake Kendall Photograph by Ken Isaaks Above: KEVICC student art on display in the Old Bookshop, Totnes Market Square