Having to undergo a period of self-isolation is something that many of us have now unfortunately had to experience in 2020. Here, Mymuna Basar speaks about how she found the experience whilst studying for her A-Levels.

I was initially very worried about missing two weeks of school - the amount of content we cover each day is a lot, let alone 2 whole weeks! Fortunately, my teachers scheduled Microsoft Teams meetings straight away so that I could join in and follow the lesson from home. Of course, it’s not the same as being in the classroom, but I could tell they were trying their best from how they emailed me the worksheets and replied to my emails immediately. On top of that, LAE also has all the content for almost every subject uploaded on Firefly [our virtual learning environment], so I technically didn’t even need to email my teachers since all the PowerPoints were already available for me to use. There are also drop-in sessions every week on Tuesdays, which were extremely helpful as I could get one to one help from one of the teachers.   

The final, and probably most impactful thing LAE did was make me do the Half Term Assessments despite being at home. Naturally at the time I was annoyed, but looking back I am glad that I did them because it meant that I knew what I needed to work on and what I didn’t understand. They uploaded the test online for me at the same time as everyone else and I had to complete it with my camera on. Although it was not the most ideal situation, they did what was best for me. 

It’s very easy to get demotivated during periods of self-isolation/quarantine, but the immense support I received from my teachers really helped me stay on top of my work and not fall behind - only a month into my A-Level journey!