Student leaders share thoughts

With pupils from grades three to six joining the rest of a student population back at school this week, some of the youngsters getting back in the classroom have reflected on their remote-learning experiences. Here is a snapshot –

It’s been a challenge

“Remote learning has definitely been a challenge. I had to spend more of my week with my siblings, but we actually ended up getting a bit closer.

“I found the first few weeks the hardest because I couldn’t speak to my friends or any other family members.

“Once we reached week four, my teacher started to have group Webex’s with us every morning. This meant we could see our classmates, go through our work together and ask our teacher any questions we had. Although it was nice to see all our classmates via video, I still missed seeing them face to face.

“I am now incredibly excited to see my friends again. It was nice doing work at home, but I missed my friends and after a few weeks I got really bored. I am bursting to get out of the house and to finally attend school again.” Addison Walter, school captain Horsham Primary School 298 campus

Ups and downs

“Remote learning has had its ups and downs. Some positives of remote learning were that I could stay in my pyjamas all day. I also didn’t have to wake up early to go to school and you had flexibility to get your work done.

“You could eat whatever and whenever you liked and go to the toilet whenever you needed.

“Another positive is that I was still able to keep in touch with my teachers.

“The downside of remote learning was not being able to get help from my teachers and peers.

“I also missed my friends and teachers a lot.” Xander Groves St Patrick’s Primary School, Stawell

The plus side

“Remote learning has been a different experience, both positive and challenging.

“One of the more difficult aspects of this has been misunderstanding the work, but on the plus side I have been able to email my teachers and ask them for help, they were very quick and helpful with their replies.

“I also missed seeing my friends and teachers and talking to them face to face, but the class got together and had video chats and played games with each other online which was fun.

“I like that I got to do work at my own pace. I’m lucky that I was able to bring my device home from school and I’m also very grateful we have good wi-fi.

“I also believe that my computer skills have improved since the start of learning from home.

“I found it hard to stick to a schedule and stay motivated during some tasks, however, this is something I have become better at. I really enjoy the PE tasks we got to do because it’s really fun to just get outside, enjoy yourself and be active.

“In conclusion, remote learning was interesting but I am really looking forward to going back to school and seeing everyone.” Elsa Byron, school captain Warracknabeal Primary School

Nervous start

“When I was told that I was going to do online schooling, I was quite nervous about how it would go.

“All of my life I did schoolwork at school and this was going to be very new and different to not just me, but family members and friends too.

“When I started my work, I realised that it wasn’t going to be as different as I thought it would be. It was great, and the more I did, the more enthusiastic I became. After a few weeks of remote schooling, I was used to the new normal.

“When I wasn’t doing schoolwork I was engaging in home activities as well.

“Overall, throughout this process I learned that even though I wasn’t at school, I could learn just as well as I could when I was at school.” Olivia Reviera St Patrick’s Primary School, Stawell

A fun, new experience

“I have enjoyed online learning at home. The teachers did an amazing job getting all of our work ready. It was really fun and a very new experience.

“At first I was a bit confused with how to do some things, but I eventually got the hang of it.

“The work we were given was cool and I think it was a bit different from what we would do at school and I really liked that.

“There’s this thing called Google Meet – that’s when you had a video chat with your class. Our teachers would organise a call and we would all get to see each other. It was so exciting because we hadn’t seen each other in so long.

“I loved the creative art tasks that we did and we played this fun game called Languagenut for Japanese. For the two last Wednesdays of home school we had ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’. It was a really relaxed day and very fun too.

“I’ve really missed being with my friends and I’m looking forward to seeing them all again.” Lauren Clyne Warracknabeal Primary School

Working together

“During our time completing online schooling, we have had a big challenge with communication, learning and keeping focus, but we’ve worked together and got through it.

“We all have had a fantastic experience and lots of fun. But now it’s time to come out of isolation and go back to school.

“In our opinion we have really enjoyed Google Meet, which is an app similar to Zoom. It is basically like having a conference meeting like our parents. It has also made it easier to talk to our teachers, classmates and friends.

“While we were doing our online learning we got to snuggle up in our warm clothes and blankets, which probably was the best part.

“But there’s a bit of a bad side to all of this, we’ve missed our friends, sports and going to actual school.

“It’s been tough. We all missed our teachers, school sports and whole school activities so much but we couldn’t wait to go back to school.

“There’s some things we’re not going to miss like worksheets and videos. We can’t wait for PE, art and drama lessons in actual classes with an actual teacher and our actual friends.” Chloe Reinheimer and Aliyah Backer Haven Primary School