After two years the war is finally over, covid is gone. No more struggles with Wi-Fi and “Miss my camera doesn’t work.” We have returned to In-Person school or as one may say “normality”. And so, the question lies, In-person school or Online school, which is best for our children?

Let’s go back to the beginning, it’s March 18th, 2020, you turn on the news just to see Boris Johnson announcing 2 weeks off (oh how he was wrong). While children cheered and parents groaned, I don’t think anyone anticipated what would happen next. As two weeks turned into two years, online school dominated the education system, and in my eyes, it should stay in the past. Online school was both restricting and promoted anti-social behaviour; restricting because it enforced limited help for students, and encouraged anti-social behaviour as it isolated students from each other. We all saw it: whether you were a parent of a young child who has run out of Pinterest arts and crafts or a parent of a teenager watching them slowly slip into a depression. It is all rooted in one thing- online school. Students went from being constantly surrounded by people for 6 hours a day to a small group of people in a short period. This projects how little the government thought about this result. Did it decrease COVID cases, yes it did, but it also led to so much more than that. The government’s decision, in my eyes, was quick and rushed due to the hurry of protecting their citizens. The idea of online school was simple and a realistic tactic when looked at it through the naked eye but it should have been thought more about. For example, art subjects. These subjects aren’t like English, maths or science where you can sit and take notes, they are hands-on subjects which require more than that.

To look more into this issue, I asked the Head of the art department, Mr Bowen his take on the matter. When asked if he preferred online teaching or in-person teaching he said, “In-person it is nearly impossible to teach a student how to draw and paint through a screen.” Following up on the answer I also asked “Is there anything you missed about this period” he responded, “I am still very glad we have online parents' evening as it is more efficient”.

For me, there were positives but also many negatives. I was able to be in my own space and enjoy music while completing my work, but I also found my concentration levels weakened by many distractions and struggled with time management. My balance of school and social life was imbalanced and I feel I am suffering the consequences now. I learned a lot during covid but not necessarily academically, but the question is what could the government have done differently if they were to known this would be the product?