6 months ago, the country went into lockdown and school became distance learning. This resulted in GCSEs being cancelled and combine this with no proper teaching for 3 months makes some very stressed year 11s. Different people will have had a different experience in lockdown so I interviewed Georgina Williams-Ellis (Grey Coat Hospital), Leyla Gulubayli and Georgia Tollis (Wimbledon High School) to find out the impact it had on them.

EB: How did lockdown affect your social life?

GWE: I think during the actual lockdown it was relatively unaffected. I stayed in contact with all the same people, but I also got back in touch with people I hadn’t spoken to in a while. My summer was a bit more sociable because I had less going on, so I was just always meeting up with friends.

GT: I couldn’t speak to any of my close friends in person which I missed and unfortunately, I didn’t speak to any of my friends just at school because I wouldn’t facetime them. I feel like my social skills have suffered as a result, but it’s been nice catching up with people recently.

EB: Did online school affect your schoolwork and homework? If so, how?

GWE: We didn’t get homework, but I think I worked harder because it was easier for me to get on with it and do it at my own pace, as well as I was motivated to have that extra free time.

GT: I was less motivated to do homework, especially because since I was already at home and I’d done all the work for the day I deemed it as less important. It was so easy to say ‘my OneNote didn’t sync’ or something like that so it was easier to find excuses to not do your work and it made me really unmotivated to put the effort in.

EB: After online school, how prepared do you feel for GCSEs and do you feel you have a disadvantage because of it?

GWE: I personally don’t feel that unprepared because I worked quite hard in lockdown, but I feel that there is a huge disadvantage for other students who didn’t have the same facilities or home environment to work in. I think it’s hard for such young people to suddenly be expected to manage their own time. I think the government should do more about it i.e. cancel them.

LG: I definitely feel I have a disadvantage. Our school’s doing pretty well to help it though. They said the government would change the GCSEs a bit but they haven’t given us any information at all so we are literally doing the exact same stuff we usually would. I feel there is a lack of information and that makes it harder.

It is clear everyone’s experience in lockdown was different because everyone handles unusual and difficult situations differently, however, it did massively impact the learning of everyone whether it was positive, or for most people, negative, leading many students to feel as if they or their friends have a disadvantage when it comes to taking the GCSEs in June and July.