Since we left Hull Collegiate, we have been doing online school. We must have attended hundreds of Zoom calls. It has been hard, as we have not been able to see anyone that we are talking to. We have had to do almost all work alone and I had never met anyone in my class. We used the normal school schedule, having breaks, lunch and lessons. It was also hard to stay focused all day when just talking to people you had never met through a screen. We never even turned our cameras on, so we literally just talked to a list of names on Zoom. We did this for over seven months, the same each day.
Until a couple of weeks ago, when we received an email from school saying that school is opening. Each year group went into school for one day per week. I was excited and a bit nervous. We were going to meet everyone we had been talking to on Zoom for all this time. We went and bought everything we needed for school and packed our bags.
The uniform shop has its annual month break in October. We ordered our uniform the day it shut and hoped that it would be finished by the time school begun again. Luckily, they just finished it in time, so we went to the shop owner’s house the day before Imogen went back to school to pick it up.
Imogen’s year was going back to school on Monday and mine on Wednesday. On Monday morning, Imogen got up very early as school starts at 7:40 and we live over half an hour away. She got ready, and I woke up and went to see her as she was leaving. Our driver took her to school, but we forgot to give him money for the bridge between Maputo (where we live) and Matola (where school is) so they ended up going a very long way round. She still got to school on time though as they left too early to make sure they got there on time. She had a good time and then I came with Dad to pick her up, but I was still in school, so I had to do my work in the car. We had milkshake at the Beatle’s Café on our way home.
On Wednesday, it was my turn to go to school. I got up early, got ready and had breakfast. I was driven to school by our driver. When I got there, some teachers greeted me and then I walked towards the school. I found a couple of other people in my year on the walk into school and asked them where to go but they didn’t know either as most of the buildings have been newly built during online school so it took us a while to find our classroom.
When we went in, I met everyone in my form (or homeroom) group and my homeroom teacher. We did the register, talked a bit, and then went to double PE. It was a very hot day (34 degrees Celsius) and we had to wear masks all day. We also had to social distance, so we weren’t allowed within two metres of each other. That made talking to people more difficult. For PE, we had to stand in our own squares. We are doing dance this half semester. It was quite difficult because we had to stay two metres apart, but it was reasonably fun.
We then went to break. We had to sit in lines on socially distanced chairs and keep our masks on whenever we weren’t eating, so it made communicating quite challenging, but it was nice getting to know people all the same.
After break we had double drama. We went outside and did some performing of our Commedia Dell’arte characters in our socially distanced squares.
We then had lunch. We all brought packed lunches because the dinner hall wasn’t open. We made circles with the chairs and sat in groups outside. It was hot but nice to socialise with people my own age for the first time in months. After we had finished eating, we chatted to each other. Teachers came out every so often and shouted at us for not socially distancing or wearing our masks properly.
After school was over, we sat at the pickup spot on chairs in rows and waited for our parents to pick us up. Dad picked me up, (Imogen couldn’t be bothered to come like I had come to see her after her first day!) and we went to the Beatles Café on the way home and had a milkshake.
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