Locked down Sydney student on the reality of homeschooling for teens

A Year 9 student from Sydney has revealed the stark reality of what teens are going through at the moment.

Justin Qin, a Year 9 student from Sydney talks about the reality of being homeschooled and how much screen time teens are really getting.

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Monday morning. Usually a dreaded time when I would wake up at 6am to attend school orchestra, but today is different. Instead, the harmonic alarm wakes me up at 8am. Two extra hours of sleep means that I’ve covered the missed sleep I lost doing an assessment the night before.

Online school in the recent Sydney Covid-19 outbreak has elicited a mixed bag of emotions and feelings for students. Education becoming digital is difficult and demanding but with this becoming the new norm, how can students adapt?

In this piece, I’m going to go through a day in my life in online school as a Year 9 student in an independent school. I will also outline the various social and physical impacts that have personally affected me during this time.

A typical day

I wore my uniform for the first day – blazer and tie. The experience was treacherous, the lack of mobility made working uncomfortable while my Windsor knot slowly choked me. After that I learned my lesson and pulled on a pair of sweats and fluffy slippers. The freedom of being able to wear whatever we desired was a very comforting part of this schooling experience.

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Justin Qin is currently learning from home.

Being able to wear casual clothes is one bonus for Justin.

I sit at my laptop five minutes before my first class at 8.30am, casually opening Canvas – our platform for submitting work. I rearrange the array of folders and pens across the dining table and log onto the Microsoft Teams meeting.

Everyone has settled into the routine, with old motivations of being the first one to get to online class dying down, even in the extension classes. The screen fills with 24 school portraits and muted microphones make me believe that everyone is on their bed lying down or on a table with a blanket wrapped around themselves (certainly me).

After a brief chat with the teacher about the work assigned for the period, the meeting disbands and I retreat to Canvas and Onenote to do the work for the day. This cycle continues throughout the days, five classes, five meetings, five times a week.

The reality of screen time

My school recently conducted a survey that assessed the amount of time spent on screens and the physical activity of students. The results were daunting. On average, eight hours, a third of a student’s day, is spent on screens. On top of this, 50 per cent of students did not have adequate physical activity of one hour per day.

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The amount of time kids are spending looking at screens is upwards of eight hours a day.

I had to admit that I do spend around nine hours a day on screen as well as also not having an hour of physical activity, it’s more like 45 minutes of basketball and walking.

For me, Friday is the most demanding day there is. I start the school day at 8.30am and end at 8pm. This is because of the school debating I do, which means five consecutive hours of training, preparation, the actual debate and feedback with the coach. A mere half an hour break in between is used to have a quick dinner and get changed into formal uniform.

Socialising has also become increasingly difficult. Hanging out with friends is out of question due to locked down LGAs and social distancing; the only other option is online through Zoom or games. Socialising for me is mostly through social media.

Fatigue has kicked in

I often ask myself, would I rather spend another two hours on screen socialising with my friends or spend the time outdoors? Fatigue has kicked in for students. Lockdown in the school holidays for many of us was a time of playing video games and waking up at noon. The six hours of playing Valorant per day to a surge of assessments and tests has created an unprecedented environment.

Everyone misses something about our day-to-day lives, ranging from friends to sports and extracurriculars. Here, I’ve tried to give a snapshot of the situation that students in lockdown are experiencing. Everyone is in this together.

Justin Qin is a Year 9 student based in Sydney.