Crushed I can’t sit my GCSE exams
WOW, here we are back in a nationwide lockdown. I am a year 11 pupil and it already feels worse than the first one. Back then it was a novelty and I thought: ‘yay, I’m off school!’ Now it’s the reverse with me wondering: ‘When can I go back to school?’ Not being able to see my friends or extended family and having nothing to do feels as if I’m back in the same place as last spring. Just days before Boris Johnson announced exams could not go ahead as planned, he was saying schools are a safe place to be and students like me would still be taking our GCSES in the summer. How are teenagers meant to be able to keep up with what’s going on? Since September, teachers have been trying their best to prepare us for our GCSE exams which, three months later, it turns out we won’t be taking. every day, will I have to wonder what the Government’s next decision might be about schools and exams? I am concerned about the ‘other ways’ in which I might be assessed. Like my fellow pupils, I am worried about my future. Why didn’t the Government make this decision earlier? Just as we’d hoped for a better 2021, all it has brought us is more fear, worry and anxiety. I listen to the Government briefings, which only adds to my anxiety. It’s all well and good saying we will get through this and setting ambitious targets, but whether we’ll meet them is a different matter. How are parents, students or teachers meant to feel confident about what the Government is doing with schools and our education when the Prime Minister can’t look us in the eye and say we will be back in the classroom before the summer holidays? How does that leave anyone feeling confident about what is to come?