A Year Like No Other

A Year Like No Other
Posted on 06/02/2020
School closed signWritten by Christine Stornelli, Student Journalist

This year has definitely not been what students and staff at St.Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School (STA) in Tottenham ever would have expected. These past few months, we have all had to stay home from school, away from our friends, and start online schooling. It is quite interesting what the students at STA have been up to these past few months, how they are dealing with “quarantine boredom”, and how they have been coping with new online classes. I’ve asked my fellow classmates how they felt about doing online school and being quarantined overall, now that we have started to get used to it, and their responses were quite interesting.

“I feel like a lot of the teachers are being more lenient about getting homework in because they're also new to doing school online so they kind of understand how hard it was for us to balance school and work, especially since my hours have gone up at work.” Michael V. says about his experience with online school.

Although, Lauren W. told me, “I have been getting so many assignments each week. It’s getting a little hard to catch up in some of my classes because they’re all posting so many assignments.”

At first, most students found the transition to online school difficult, but as time went on, some said it got easier and easier. “It was a little hard trying to understand some of the work I got because I didn't have someone explaining it to me, but my teacher made it very clear that if we had a question about anything, he would answer our emails as soon as he could, so that helped a lot,” said Angelina D.

A lot of responses I got told me that the break from school has been really good for students. Most people are taking this time to get creative with art and gardening and going on walks, as though it is summer. Is the time that we have had off for the past few months going to take away our excitement for summer? Rachel W. tells me, “Honestly, it's taken away some of the excitement because I won't be able to have the summer I was looking forward to, but I’m still super excited for the stress of school to be over. Thinking of warm days with no schedule is never not exciting.”

As the rest of the year comes to an end, it leaves us with the burning question, “will school be online in the fall?” This is what STA students had to say about that: Holley M. says that she would rather school be in class in the fall, “I find it’s not as easy to learn in a different environment than school. I find I work best and focus way more when I’m in class and able to ask the teacher questions one-on-one and we can get answers right away.”

Personally, I have enjoyed online school and I hope that it continues in the fall. I feel like I work better online and I don't have to worry about missing class if I’m not feeling well because it’s all online. Lauren W. tells me that she just misses seeing her friends every day. Rachel W. makes the point that as much as she wants to go back to school, she values her safety and the safety of everyone around.