I currently work as a primary school teacher for a fantastic British international school in Beijing.

The outbreak of Covid-19 brought with it a large migration of ex-pats from China. Faced with potential isolation and lockdown in China, many ex-pats caught flights back to their home countries so that they could spend time with families and friends at home.

However, with the imminent reopening of Chinese schools in September, plans have been put into place to enable teachers to return to their natural classroom environments.

A requirement for returning ex-pats in China is a two-week quarantine in a hotel room.

While in quarantine, individuals are not allowed to leave their rooms and all food and water is delivered directly to the hotel room door. Although this safety measure is incredibly effective at reducing the spread of the virus, it does pose the difficulty of teaching and living in a small confined space.

So that’s why I find myself in a sparsely furnished hotel room, on my second day of quarantine, ruminating on what a strange year it has been…

Coronavirus: School support for teachers

My school has been amazingly supportive towards the returning staff; booking flights, sending through care packages to hotel rooms and ensuring that everyone has the technology needed to continue the virtual school.

With such a trying experience on the cards, each and every step of the process of returning to China has been explained to us in detail by the HR staff, all of our questions have been answered and a variety of advice and information has been sent through as prepared reading material.

This support has proved invaluable.

Similarly, the teachers themselves have banded together and formed support groups. Each day we discuss what is to come, ask for advice from those with experience and share ideas about our “survival”.

One example - a pivotal piece of information hinted that the food provided in many hotels is not always to individual taste or diet. So, after a thoughtful food trip, my bag is now packed with a variety of healthy dried food to see me through the two-week period.

Teaching in quarantine

Of course, my time in quarantine won’t just be spent lounging around watching TV and building pillow forts - in fact, most of the time will be spent teaching.

When our virtual school began back in February, our school made excellent use of Microsoft Teams and Zoom to deliver live lessons and home activities.

Now, with the start of the new school year, we have moved to Seesaw.

This has meant that all of the work, marking, videos and notifications are made available to the parents in one place.

With the addition of daily PSHE Zoom lessons for each class, the beginning of the school year has made a running start.

I have been lucky enough to have begun this experience in England. Once I am back in China, there will be added benefits but also potential pitfalls.  

Firstly, time zone difficulties will disappear: with China currently seven hours ahead of GMT, live lessons have taken place early in the morning for UK-based teachers but mid-afternoon for the children. After months of interacting with children scattered far and wide across the globe, it will be fantastic to finally be able to interact with my children and experience the same time of day.

Unfortunately, internet and my ability to deliver live lessons could be an issue.

Once landed in the country, the Chinese authorities take charge of the quarantine hotel and location.

While those currently undertaking quarantine have been able to access the internet, upload lesson activities and respond to marking, they have been unable to deliver live lessons due to hotel limits on internet speed and traffic.  

Luckily, as a member of a fantastic team of dedicated teachers, we have been able to prepare for this by giving the children the option to join lessons with other year group teachers. 

Maintaining mental health

Although planning, resourcing, marking and responding to child and parent queries will take up a large chunk of time, there will still be too many hours in the day to fill.

As such, it is important to focus on my mental health and positive thinking while confined to my room.

One of the most important aspects of my life is exercise. My weekly life involves running, going to exercise classes and playing squash.

So, while in quarantine, I will be integrating exercise into my daily routine. I have bought resistance bands and a skipping rope in anticipation.

Furthermore, so much time to focus on myself has offered the unique opportunity to reflect on my past love of art. I returned from a jaunt to the shops with a new sketch pad and set of drawing pencils, which I am excited to put to good use.

Counting the days...

Although I am far from looking forward to my time in quarantine, my preparation has enabled me to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Going back to the classroom will never have seemed so welcome!

Gemma Tonge is a primary teacher at a British international school in China. She has taught internationally for three years