Watching our Year 11 students walking out of the school’s main entrance last Friday, through a guard of honour formed by their teachers and to thunderous applause from both staff and students from other years, I had to choke back the lump in my throat.
Seeing the children we have watched grow and flourish in our care at St Cuthbert’s is always emotional. Every year, we’re filled with pride in their achievements, excitement for their exam results and for their future plans. But last week was different. We were genuinely sad.
This wasn’t the send-off they expected and deserved. Leaving four months earlier than planned, after the Government decided to close all schools and cancel exams in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus, we had two days to prepare them for what would potentially be the last day of their high school lives.
No prom, no results day or formal school photo.
There was no way we were going to let the moment pass without recognition or ceremony. Amidst all the confusion and uncertainty, not to mention the level of planning that was required to prepare the resources to educate almost 900 students from home, the teachers swung into action.
We tried to keep as many of our leaving traditions as possible under the current circumstances, including a makeshift leaver’s photo and the Guard of Honour on their last day. It was a magical and bittersweet moment that was only made possible by my incredible team.
In the few days before closure, we had to get our ducks in a row, but we made time for fun too. We live-streamed You’ll Never Walk Alone playing in one of our classrooms, as our way of participating in the Europe-wide singalong and when one of our pupils,
Jamal, celebrated his birthday his class marked the occasion by singing Happy Birthday, while all washing their hands.
I was amazed by how both students and staff adapted to a completely alien situation in a heartbeat. The morning after the school closures were announced, I arrived at school to some surprising news. The Spanish department had live-streamed a full lesson from its Instagram channel and had planned lessons for each year group for the following days.
With parents across the country tearing their hair out at the prospect of home-schooling and lacking resources to help them, we decided to make the channel public, to help the wider community.
Our morning catch up quickly turned into an impromptu training session, with Spanish teachers Miss Smith and Mrs. Barrett sharing tips on live-streaming classes and the PE department training the rest of the staff on using Google Classroom share resources and work assignments and mark and feedback on them. Having an innovative team that is already doing things differently really does make a difference in times of crisis.
I’m used to working under pressure and staying calm on the outside even if it’s not the same on the inside. As we’ve entered a new week, with part of the school remaining open for children of our amazing key workers, the team has seen some cracks starting to show. I don’t think any of us have laughed as hard as when I was caught putting my lipstick for a conference call! Well, I have to look my best don’t I?
The funny thing is, thanks to the flexibility and innovation of our staff and the great can-do attitude and resilience of our students, things are already back to ‘business as usual’.
We have a new normal and it’s becoming familiar, unlike everything else that is going on.
Even takeaways are different now as I learned on Tuesday. There was a side of impeccable health and safety when my delivery of Chinese food arrived, with social distancing so well-implemented that I thought my neighbour across the road would be enjoying my ginger and spring onion dish. That went down well with a large glass of wine, let me tell you!
In everything, the biggest challenge that we’ve faced is getting free school meals to those children entitled to them, whose parents were unable to collect. It was our fantastic site staff that stepped up to the plate here, delivering sandwiches to the door.
Watch out Deliveroo!
Despite all the stress and change, our school values have continued to shine though in our employees, students and parents. Our goal to always be kind and think about others. Items left in the Food Technology freezers were parcelled up and donated to vulnerable local families and yesterday English teacher Mrs Sharples dropped off a crate of freshly washed and sanitised eye protectors from our science department to NHS workers at the Manchester Royal Infirmary.
The goggles were accompanied by letters of thanks from the children still in school to show our gratitude - another tear-jerking moment I’m told.
A few days ago, one of our English students said to me “Miss, we are living in a future GCSE History question.” It really made me think about how we are reacting to this unprecedented and challenging time, how people might look back on the choices we made in years to come.
I’m proud of what people will see of our school’s community. Deeply proud. It really is a scary and unsettling time for all of us. I’m missing the children being in school, my colleagues knocking on my door and the noise of a school packed with life. But I know it will return. With spirit and resilience like this, it will be hard to keep us down.
This is the latest in the ECHO’s series of Coronavirus Diaries, focusing on people’s individual experiences during this unprecedented time. If you have a story to share, email laura.davis@reachplc.com or comment below.
