With daily government press briefings now the norm, social distancing in place for the foreseeable future and conflicting information on when we might ever return to "normal" (and what that might look like), it can be difficult to find positives at the minute.
Difficult, yes, but not impossible.
As much as the pandemic has had a huge impact on everything we do from going to work to the availability of toilet roll and pasta (with the nation craving penne like never before), we can all take heart from how the country has adapted.
Our doctors, nurses, carers and other healthcare professionals, our NHS, have been stunning. Our educators, too.
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Work from home? OK. Look after and homeschool our kids at the same time? Gotcha. Move to a completely digital way of living and limit interactions with all but our nearest and dearest? No problem.
It has been hard, and we miss our loved ones, but we have found ways to cope.
Showing patience and dedication
Teachers and leaders have been amazingly flexible, showing patience and dedication in dealing with whatever is thrown at them.
As much as homeschooling can be difficult at times, there’s a lot to be said for spending a lunch hour in the garden playing football or creating chalk masterpieces on the patio (without or without the kids).
What comes before and after that lunchtime has been impressive, too. Teaching has migrated from a hugely diverse number and style of schools, departments, classrooms and people in every part of the country to online videos, Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams, phone calls, emails, texts, Twitter and everything in between. As teachers do, we have adapted (extraordinarily quickly), with minimal resources and very little room for error.
We have come together as a professional community to make sure that we continue doing what we do every day: make sure no one is left unsupported. We make videos and quizzes, booklets and guides, sharing each and everything wherever possible to carry on doing what we do.
And then there are the little things that we hadn’t considered. Gaining five hours throughout the week without the commute to school or college. Having the time to cook proper meals with each other (though four sets of cakes in one week was excessive). Not having to apply make-up or spending a working day in pyjamas or shorts and a T-shirt. Growing closer to our colleagues, even though we are further apart. The Friday night pub quizzes. The Saturday night pub quizzes. The Sunday night pub quizzes. (Why are we doing so many quizzes?)
Quizzes aside, watching the education community rally, to make sure that we help each other wherever and however we can, has been awe inspiring.
Teachers have leapt into the unknown so many times since working from home: experimenting to create online content, creating new and diverse resources and usually doing all of this while limited by our own resources.
Leaders too have provided for students in all walks of life, often identifying and solving major issues within days or even hours of being asked, or anticipating them well in advance. Before the government made any announcement on free school meals provision, many schools had contacted local supermarkets and purchased and distributed vouchers – this was a sign of the efficiency and inventiveness to come.
Keep looking for the positives
It has not been perfect, but no set of actions that need to cater for students, parents/carers, teachers, leaders, support workers, governors, external agencies and everybody in between for all sectors from EYFS to higher education can possibly be perfect.
At the very least, the Sunday night feeling isn’t quite so evident when you know you’ll be in your pyjamas until 1pm the next day and working from your dining room.
It’s tough at times – and for some more than others, it’s worse than that – but keep looking for the positives and doing what you can and there are moments to warm all of us.
Watching neighbours singing Happy Birthday from driveways, the weekly celebration of our NHS and outpouring of love over video calls – there have been some wonderful highs to go with the obvious lows.
We might not know what the world will look like when the pandemic ends, but we do know that it will end eventually. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll even look back on this time with a touch of fondness for the time we got to spend together, how we grew closer and how little the little things suddenly became.
The writer is an FE lecturer in the North of England
