Hundreds of year 12 students across the region are facing a tough time during coronavirus lockdowns but they are also preparing for their Higher School Certificates in challenging educational times.
Three of those students include La Salle Academy's Shannon O'Regan, Winston Neville and Kiran Gajula.
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The students have now spent the last month studying from home, and each has had a different experience dealing with working from home.
According to Shannon, COVID-19 has had somewhat of a detrimental effect on her schooling.
"My teachers are putting in a huge effort to ensure we are equipped with enough work and resources to continue our learning remotely, but unfortunately it is just not the same as the physical classroom learning experience," she said.
Shannon said that it had been difficult changing from teacher guided learning to independent learning.
"It has also been hard to adjust to online learning due to little issues like WiFi problems and connection issues that make the student to teacher interactions more difficult," she said.
The students while at home have been using programs such as Zoom, Education Perfect, Google Classroom and Atomi for their online learning.
Shannon said that while these learning programs and tools have been useful, she feels an immense amount of pressure regarding her HSC.
"The ambiguity of the situation regarding whether we will actually be sitting exams or whether we will acquire a final mark based on assessment has been something really difficult to comprehend," she said.
"This has also made studying a big issue as we don't actually know what to prepare for."
With rumours swirling about the current year 12's having to complete their HSC exams in 2021 or complete extra months of schooling, Shannon said this has caused extra stress amongst her peers.
"It's been really annoying to hear all the different rumours regarding a so called 'Year 13'," she said.
"I feel as though it is an opinion shared by most students that this is something that no one wants to do, the thought of any more stress surrounding this situation is something nobody wants."
Feelings of sadness surround this year's current year 12's as they spend their last year separated from friends and teachers.
"I feel really sad about not being able to experience my last year of school, actually in a school," she said.
"Our year 12 cohort has missed out on some things that may seem small but are disappointing as we have seen all the years before us get to experience, like Year 12 jerseys that have unfortunately not made it to us yet, and the fact we may not get to have a graduation, a formal, or even a last day at school."
For these reasons Shannon would love to return to school as soon as possible.
"It has been really hard to adjust to online learning and I feel as though we get much more valuable learning time when we get to share the classroom with our teachers," she said.
When students spend over six hours surrounded by friends and peers five days a week, then having sporting or after school curricular activities on the weekend, going into isolation has been particularly hard.
"It has been really hard not seeing my friends everyday, I don't think we could really understand the importance of social interactions until we were literally forced not to," she said.
"It has not only been hard socially, but isolation from my friends has also taken a mental toll. It has been hard to continue my schooling without them, but social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram as well as FaceTime have made it easier to keep in touch."
Shannon said that it was really important to thank all of her teachers, as well as La Salle Academy principal Ms Joyce Smith and Vice Principal Ms Rachel Hughes.
"All of the staff at La Salle have tried their hardest to ensure that the transition from school learning to online learning has been as smooth as possible for all students," she said.
"The effort from our teachers is appreciated beyond words, and their efforts have made it much easier for not only the year 12 students but all of the student body to learn from home."
For Winston Neville, COVID-19 was an unexpected curveball in his schooling journey, causing learning and completing school work to become more challenging.
"One challenge I have faced with the change is the type of school work and the new work load, but I have just been taking it all one day at a time though," he said.
Winston who takes art as one of his elective classes, said that not being at school has forced him to change the process in which he was completing his major work.
"I don't really feel added pressure, teachers have been understanding of our situation and have tried to help us as best as they can, and that's a credit to them," he said.
Winston was another student who didn't like the idea of having to take his studies into 2021.
"I remember reading that exams could be moved to 2021 or that we would have to repeat, and I was not keen on the idea of that," he said.
I think we just have to keep rolling forward.
- Winston Neville
Missing out on annual year 12 events has been disappointing, Winston said.
"It's definitely disappointing missing out or potentially missing out on things such as our last athletics carnival, talent show and other events through the school as well as missing the opportunity to fundraiser for our year 12 charities," he said.
But Winston isn't hoping to return to school as soon as possible.
"Honestly no, I think we've only just settled into the online learning format and it would be disruptive to change the way of doing things again and so suddenly," he said.
Social media has been a blessing for the student, when trying to keep in touch with friends and family over the past month in isolation.
"It's hard not seeing friends or talking to them as much, as well as family. I've been keeping in touch with everyone though social media though," he said.
Winston said he gives full credit to his teachers during this trying time.
"As well as Mrs Smith and Mrs Hughes for handling this situation so well and helping us through it all as best as they can," he said.
Kiran Gajula is one particular student who says he hasn't felt that COVID-19 has had much of an impact on his schooling, since he can continue his studies at home via online classes.
"The only challenge I have faced working from home is the lack of the one on one interaction with my teachers," he said.
Since it is school holidays, the students don't have any online classes to attend.
"If we did subjects such as art, drama and sports we would set a time with the teacher to go to school to work on that subject," he said.
He also said he wasn't feeling the added pressure for his HSC exams that other students are feeling.
"I do not feel any added pressure for our HSC exams because I would hope that universities would take this difficult situation into special consideration and I eat pressure for breakfast," he said.
Kiran said that he didn't think it would be "fair or practical" on the graduating students of 2020 to make them come back next year to do tests or to have extra classes.
"Well, I am not very keen on that idea," he said.
But he does hope to be able to go back to school as soon as possible to be able to catch up with his friends and complete school work.
"It is in some sense disappointing not seeing your friends everyday of the last year of school," he said.
"I miss the friendly banter with my teachers."
Kiran said he found self isolation quite tedious as he could no longer hang out with his friends.
"But we do keep in touch via social media and online games," he said.
"People I would like to thank are teachers, doctors, the police force and the leaders of this country for keeping us safe, healthy and educated."
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