Okay, so according to the news we are apparently reaching the peak of this pandemic. So surly that’s a good sign…
Although for the time being, I personally think and hope that the strict rules of the lockdown will stay in place for at least a few more weeks. Which it would make entire sense to do so!
However once we know that everything is under control, I would imagine that the measures may be relaxed bit by bit. What we deem as more essential will obviously be relaxed first, like lets say non-essenttial dental appointments, clothing shops and lets face it… maybe schools. Which is great!
It means that if people are no longer required to work at home, parents don’t have to worry about who looks after their kids, it means tat anyone in year 12 (hands up aha) doesn’t have to face the torture of teaching themselves their A-level content and that people who had their exams cancelled may get to do them after all. Maybe at a slightly later date… who knows. At least this will remove the unfairness of teachers predicting their favourite pupils top grades, and those who they have less confidence in: lower grades. Whilst the poor people who didn’t do so well in their mocks will at least have the chance of doingg better this time. Happened to me last year!
But hang on a sec! I mean if this is going to be the case, then surly it is just messing with their heads more rather than less. Just imagaine, thinking that you have exams, which lts face it they can be a very stressful time, then being told they have been cancelled due to a pandemic which many grown adults cannot cope with, let alone students. And now, being told they do have them after all. Thankgod I cannot actually imagaine this stress. but if this were to happen, then this would be a reality maany people would face.
Ok, so it has its ups and downs. Many students may genuinely prefer to do the exams, in spite of uncertainty on top of uncertainty. And there are alternative paths the government could take. So maybe let students who are happy with their “calculated” grades not return, whilst those who would rather take the exam- return to school in order to do them. And hopefully those not wanting to do so, could still pop in just to say goodye to everyone! But then what? People are sstill going to say that it is unfair that some people have got these grades without having taken an exam, whilst others will have achieved the grades with the pains of taking an exam. This inevitably creates an un-level playing field. But in a way it did in the first place. So whatever happens, won’t be perfect, which I suppose is inevitable. Nevertheless do our students in the “exam years” really need all this extra stress put upon themselves?
But whatever your views are regarding exam taking, unless these years were excluded from going back to school, this would be very complicated…then this leaves the rest of us. So I personally would be glad to go back to school, for a number of reasons, in spite of the fact that all i ever do is seem to complain about it. Though is it really one of the first priorities?
I have heard on the radio that they think that opening the schools will be a relatively “low risk” movement, as young people are at very low risk of becoming very ill from the virus. However the initial point of shutting the schools in the first place, was in order to help slow the spread of the virus. As it is pretty obvious. The more people who are exposed to the virus, whether fit or unfit, the higher the number of carriers. And although if kids kept themselves to themselves, they would probably be ok, after a while I expect that parents may get complacent to the fact that they can’t see their gran-parents. As well as the fact that many many young children live with their granparents, may have older parents or have to travel to and from school via bus. Though even if they walk, I must be honest and say that there is an impressive number of older people outside. At least where I live…
So there are alternatives. Maybe a good idea would to be to let those who are studying for exams (not necessarily the year 11s and 13s) but the year 10s and 12s working towards exams, get back to normal classes whilst the younger children could stay home. This would obviously make the “practising of social distancing” far more feasible, as there would be barely anyone at school! As if your school is anything like mine, it is impossible anyway to get from one part of the building to another without being brushed upon by at least one other person. Let alone keeping a 2 metre at ALL TIMES. I doubt our corridors are even 2 metres wide. Furthermore perhaps the sound of a one way system including around the outside may sound appealing to some, but when the stairs are brought into the game, it all becomes rather more of a problem. And just to top this all off, the way that some of these younger children behave is pretty risky. From the way they have the tendacy to huggle together like penguins, to how a group of 6 of them will clog the corridor, or barge infront of you at the lunch quew. Not to mention how that half of them probably walk out of the toilets without washing theri hands. Yeah…gross.
And then we aare all free to use buses, and spread the germs on there.
So I am hoping that if they are considering bringing back the schools, that this will be at least when everything is more under control. And if they bring back the schools before things are beginning to look up, which I think really is highly unlikely, then I do hope that they will just be open of whom it’s most important to be there, rather than having everybody there…
Personally Political 