a Q&A with Inayat Kabir and Sohail Mehta , Year 11
What was your reaction when you first found out that a lockdown was going to take place?
Well, first of all, I couldn’t believe it. The news of a lockdown taking place completely baffled me. The thought of staying at home for a good four to five months was a bittersweet one. The idea of being at home with my family was amazing, but the idea of being away from my teachers and friends was quite upsetting. I knew I would miss them, hence I tried to keep in contact with them as much as possible.
How did you keep in contact with friends, families and teachers?
I would communicate and stay in contact with my loved ones in different ways. With my friends, I would be talking to them mostly all day! We would communicate via WhatsApp Messenger and the PlayStation party function. I prefered the PlayStation party function, as you could hear your friends’ voices. With my family, we would arrange Zoom meeting calls every now and then to stay in contact. With my teachers, I would use the Google classroom chat function to stay in touch. That was also nice as I got to know how the teachers lockdown was going as well.
What would you do differently if you had another lockdown?
I would change a lot of things to be completely honest! First of all, I would increase the amount of time I spent studying. As a year 11 student, this lockdown affected us very much, as we covered less GCSE content. This meant that we now have to speed up, which will give us less time to do revision. Secondly, I would participate in more exercise activities. Exercise was very important in those circumstances as you would be at home all day. It would give you some fresh air as well as make sure that you didn’t put on some weight! All in all, lockdown was a nice experience, however I would not like to experience another one.
How much did you play in the lockdown?
In the lockdown I did play lots of PlayStation and football and so on. But I did not let it get in the way of my studies, as I knew how easily all the free time could have gone to waste. So considering that, I had set times to play so I could focus on all my tasks at hand.
How much did you study in the lockdown?
As I said before I did the right task at the right time. I had a timetable set to control how much studying I do and how much playing. I usually studied two-and-a-half hours outside of school and this was enough to help me in my studies.
