My Year 10 daughter is so excited at prospect of being back at school. She hasn’t found being at home easy and with me out at work all day and her father working in different time zones we haven’t been able to provide as much support with schooling as we would have liked. I really appreciate how supportive the school has been, and I think you have all done a great job in difficult circumstances. – Year 10 parent

We know that some parents and students alike are looking forward to Y10s and 12s returning to the classroom. Teachers are also excited at the prospect of being back at school. “I’ll Be Back!”, exclaims English teacher, Mrs Milner, who gives her thoughts on virtual teaching during lock down and returning to school to teach Year 10 and 12 on Monday.

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Whilst many students around the country are belting out legendary rock crooner Alice Cooper’s classic anthem ‘School’s Out!’, the rest of us at Fyling Hall are emerging from lock down and returning to school with dodgy YouTube tutorial haircuts and a new found respect for TikTok’s recipe videos; let’s face it – who hasn’t had banana bread more than once over the past few months? I can just imagine you all nodding and reaching for the cake tin as I type.

During this time, Microsoft Teams has become our new classroom and I am personally impressed by how many students have coped (and even thrived) using this new way of learning. My classes have been subjected to a variety of different tasks including units on Science Fiction and Shakespeare for Year 7, a WW1 play and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ for Year 9 and ‘Othello’ (even more Shakespeare) for Year 12.

Technology and communication via Teams has been a life saver as I’ve been able to deliver lessons and talk to my classes face to face. I’ve been on calls each day with students from Whitby, Robin Hood’s Bay and Scarborough, to Shropshire, Spain, Ukraine and China. I’ve seen the view from a hotel window in Chongqing, to the view of the sea in South Shields, to the view of an angry-looking cow in Burniston as it encouraged Joe to beat a hasty retreat! Needless to say, Joe’s going to avoid that field during the Year 10 English call in future!

Speaking of Year 10, my class has been studying ‘Ozymandias and ‘My Last Duchess’ and when we return on Monday, we’ll be looking at another poem from the AQA anthology called ‘Kamikaze’. At the same time as teaching in real life, I’ll be delivering an online lesson to those Year 10s who are still working from home. It’ll be interesting to see how that works out!

Year 12 will be continuing to delve into Iago’s destructive manipulation of Othello. I’ve been amazed at how well many of my 6^th Form girls have coped with A Level Shakespeare without any time in a real class room so it’ll be brilliant to see everyone in the flesh again; I’m looking forward to getting back to the English huts and being able to have a proper class discussion about the texts.

Well, there’s only one way to work off that banana bread and that’s with a Joe Wicks HIIT workout so I’ll go and grab my sweat bands and leg warmers (eighties inspired and pink, of course) and get fit for Monday. Hasta la vista!