Starting Sixth Form during Covid-19

We are about a month into Sixth Form now, and settling back into a school routine again after six months of lockdown, induced by a global pandemic, hasn’t been quite as daunting as I anticipated.

I’m actually more wary about the fact that I’ve now reached Sixth Form, and I would have probably still had these thoughts under normal circumstances.

It’s funny how easily your mood can shift. My thoughts range from assessing my productivity rate in free periods and making painstaking decisions over my Café 6 orders, to thoughts such as:

“A Levels? Am I really old enough for that?”

“Am I dedicated enough for an EPQ? What I can I do it on?”

“How am I going to make the most of the opportunities of these two years?”,

“There’s too much information being thrown at me  . . . personal statement . . . CV . . . work experience . . . volunteering . . . online courses . . . ahh!”

Despite these worries (which I think is normal) the freedom of Sixth Form and the privileges of Café 6 and outings to Caversham are very nice, along with free periods which are very useful.

As well as negotiating the logistics of the one-way system and getting very familiar with the geography department, and getting up its steep stairs every morning (that’s where the Lower Sixth are bubbled), there are other particulars that impact my school daily routine thanks to COVID. Proceedings I would never have had to think about or incorporate ordinarily. For example, making sure both your hands are free in order to receive your regular dose of hand sanitiser upon entry onto the bus or adjusting your face mask to the optimum fitting once you’re seated.

Of course it’s a shame that school has to have all these measures put in place to keep us all safe from coronavirus, but on the whole, I think it’s really good that we’ve all been able to go back. We’re in a routine again. We’ve now got new goals to work towards. We have a purpose once again and it’s very beneficial to our mental health. 

By Natasha C (L6)