It’s been over 100 days since the corridors of Bell Baxter High School were last filled with the chatter and laughter of pupils.
Until today, the vast majority of those who attend the Cupar school have had to swap the classroom for the kitchen table or the desks in their bedroom.
That’s because in December, amid rising concerns about emerging Covid-19 variants, the Scottish Government announced that schools would move to remote learning after the Christmas break.
Although the initial announcement indicated that this may only last until January 18, it’s proven to be another three months before secondary pupils could be back full time.
As pupils marked the long awaited full-time return to secondary schools in Fife, The Courier spoke to those at Bell Baxter to hear how they felt to be back.
After almost four months away, the return to the classroom is bound to throw up mixed emotions.
For sixth year pupils Grace Turnbull and Charlotte Wood, however, being back at Bell Baxter marks the slow return to normality.
Charlotte said: “It relieves a bit of anxiety. Just being able to speak to people, it’s a lot more normal.
Grace added: “I’m excited to be back, it’s really nice to see everyone’s face in person again.”
For youngsters Emma Miller, who is in first year, and Logan Reynolds, in S2, one of the best things about being back is seeing their teachers for face-to face teaching.
This, they agree, is something they much prefer to online learning.
“It relieves a bit of anxiety. Just being able to speak to people, it’s a lot more normal.”
Grace Turnbull, sixth year pupil
Emma said: “It’s better than being over a screen.
“It’s easier because if your laptop wasn’t working or the teacher was having connection problems, you couldn’t do much about that.”
Logan added: “You get to see people and actually feel like you are having a proper lesson.
“It would be great if that was the last time we had to stay off school and be on laptops all day.”
In normal times the return from the Easter break would mean senior pupils gearing up to sit exams.
But with these being cancelled for the second successive year in favour of teacher estimates, pupils are having to prepare for an alternative way of achieving national qualifications.
This brings with it its own anxieties and for Kate Mountain, also in sixth year, it’s taken a while to get to grips with the new normal.
She said: “It’s definitely been disruptive because my grades were not what I needed [last year].
“Through August to December last year, that was pretty bad just getting to grips with it all.
“My world kind of got flipped upside down and I’m just getting back on my feet now.”
Charlotte added: “You’re not sure if what you’re doing at home is going to be enough or necessarily the right thing.
“Last year a lot of people were caught out because they maybe don’t always try as hard until the end of the year and that actually didn’t do them that good.
“Hopefully that confidence will build over the next few weeks.”
Senior pupils at secondary school are among those whose lives have been most disrupted by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.
The restrictions on who they can see and where has meant they have missed out on the social engagements they would normally take for granted.
Sixth year pupil Calum Cook admitted this school year has been a tough pill to swallow after an optimistic start.
He said: “We came out of the first lockdown and everyone was hopeful we could get a fun end to S6 and then it all went back under which hit everyone the hardest.
“We’ve had to learn to take every opportunity to have fun. It’s been so hard to see people, holidays and parties have been cancelled.”
Although the usual milestones of their final year may have been upended, the Bell Baxter sixth years still hope they can mark their their school farewell with something special.
Grace said: “I’m not sure any of us want to do another lockdown, especially because we want our last term of school to just be as good as possible.
“Maybe in the next few weeks or months, we can put something together. Everyone wants it so hopefully it will happen!”
“School buildings are supposed to be full of children”
At the front gate welcoming pupils back this morning was rector, Carol-Ann Penrose.
And although pupils returned part-time from March 15, Ms Penrose said seeing the building “full of children” once more was a great sight.
She said: “We’re all really delighted that we are able to come back. It’s been a difficult year and in particular this last term has been difficult going into the second lockdown.
“School buildings are supposed to be full of children so it’s good that they’re all back and we can try get back to normal.”
Although all pupils are required to wear face coverings in the school buildings, social distancing measures are more relaxed.
This is to the relief of Ms Penrose, who said it would not be possible to have all pupils back if the two-metre rule was in place.
She said: “Logistically you can’t have the whole school back with two metre distancing; we don’t have the capacity for that.
“The key difference is that the junior years are now wearing face coverings in the class. Other than that, it’s just really a reminder of the existing mitigations we had in place.”
With almost half of the school year being taught remotely, it has been one like no other.
But despite the challenges, Bell Baxter’s rector is confident that the lessons learned from the pandemic experience could prove to be important in years to come.
“Logistically you can’t have the whole school back with two metre distancing; we don’t have the capacity for that”
Rector, Carol-Ann Penrose
She said: “There are always silver linings in everything that happens.
“What teachers have had to do is revolutionise the way they deliver learning experiences and I’m really proud of what our teachers have done.
“None of this had been ideal but what we have learned in terms of the learning style, some children actually preferred being at home.
“So we have lots of ideas of what we can do to really capitalise on what we’ve learned, in particular with those hardest to reach young people.
“We can continue to engage them with the learning without always having to always be within school where they might not always able to deal with.”
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