Face masks, hand sanitisers and windows wide open in the height of winter.
Teachers were not allowed to move around the classroom, there were bubbles for different year groups and testing kits distributed to all children and families… and the list goes on and on.
These were just some of the challenges school teachers faced on a daily basis as the pandemic took hold.
The valiant efforts made by school teachers and school leaders to maintain bubbles in schools simply did not matter.
As soon as children were outside, they all got the bus or the train home together – allowing the virus to spread.
It comes as then prime minister Boris Johnson will today give evidence to the UK COVID-19 Inquiry – specifically on the impact of the pandemic on children and young people, as part of Module 8 of the independent public hearings.
Teachers constantly playing catch-up
But the chaos caused by quickly changing rules and a lack of planning didn’t help the situation.
That summer saw A-level results calculated using an algorithm, which downgraded 40% of teacher assessments.
On 13 August 2020, then education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson defended the grading system. Just days later, on 17 August, he U-turned and allowed pupils to receive their teacher-assessed grades.
Meanwhile, the government had two big school holidays, summer 2020 and Christmas, in which they could have installed air purifiers and implemented the sanitising of school buildings ahead of new terms beginning.
Instead, we had “Eat Out to Help Out”.
On 3 January 2021, Mr Johnson said that “schools were safe” – as he warned of tightening restrictions in the wake of rising coronavirus cases.
Just a day later, Mr Johnson announced schools would close from 5 January.
Over nine million children went to school for a single day after the Christmas holidays – sharing their respective germs with their classmates.
Then they went home to share them with their own families, parents and vulnerable grandparents.
Teachers felt frustrated they were constantly playing catch-up, as instructions from the government changed sporadically and were often unclear, under-resourced and under-funded.
Struggles of learning online
Online learning was another monumental challenge for teachers.
Despite being established for schools and families, many children didn’t have the necessary digital access; they were sharing devices with siblings and parents who were now also having to work from home.
While online learning posed its own challenges, cameras on/off, microphones on/off, children not able to join, unreliable internet connection, among other difficulties.
Online lessons were particularly challenging. I recall reading A Christmas Carol to a class that were virtually unresponsive bar one or two pupils who, I think, felt sorry for me.
Most, if not all, of the children’s cameras were off, and many children were not interacting online.
When we were back in school, I caught COVID. It was inevitable after being exposed to hundreds of children on any given day.
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Most challenging time during my entire teaching career
Teachers were expected to teach online and then also make calls home to parents and children to help with any pastoral issues.
And that’s before trying to navigate the challenges of children whose parents had lost their jobs and were struggling to make ends meet.
It was tough, having to home-school my own two children and teach online, as well as call home to ensure that the mental health and well-being of students was also addressed.
I would speak to parents that were beside themselves, and didn’t know how to get their children out of bed or undertake their online learning.
I lost friends and family to COVID, many colleagues also found the impact on their mental health overwhelming.
Teaching during COVID was by far the most challenging time during my entire teaching career, spanning over 20 years.
