My name is Aimee, I’m in Year 11 and I am a member of the SRC. During this crazy time of change it is very easy to just look at the negatives, but for now, I’d like to point out some of the positives I have found while working as a VCE student from home.

Firstly, I get to be in my own environment where I know I can focus and work really well. I know that when I sit down at my desk, it is social media away and ‘game face’ on. I also don’t have to lug all of my textbooks and extra resources into school, they are right at my fingertips all the time!

Every class is so different because each teacher has taken their own approach to these circumstances meaning that I have much more variety during my day then I usually do. While there are some unexpected positives, there are of course the anticipated cons. Being in front of a screen for the whole day is very difficult, especially when there is much study to do beyond the school hours. I try to balance this out by spending my breaks outside and off screens. Class discussion is also difficult to initiate as you can’t tell when people are going to speak leading to quite a bit of interrupting.

For some students (including me) school is their main social interaction from Monday to Friday, and without it we’re going a little crazy! With all of this in mind, it has been a weird couple of weeks adapting to online schooling, but I know that with the help of the college and all of the teachers, we will reach the end of this stronger than before, with new skills and better mind sets. Good luck to all my peers, we can do this.

Aimee

Year 11

Hey, this is Rusha and I’m a Year Nine SRC rep!

The world is pretty unstable right now because of COVID-19. A lot of people are getting overwhelmed and stressed about it, however it is very important to go easy on yourself and take time for self-care. I have some self-care activities I have been doing that make me feel a lot better.

Plan out your day:

I like to plan out my day so it makes me feel more organised. I like to dedicate some parts of the day to something I will definitely be doing. I like to put in times I have to focus on homework and studies and time when I can just relax and do the things I love.

Also having a clean place makes everything 10 times better. It makes you feel like you're not being lazy and you're staying active and organised.

Stay Active: (indoor exercise)

Everyone knows that exercise is good for wellbeing and for our mental health. Being isolated doesn’t mean you can't do physical activity. There are heaps of different types of exercise you can do at home thanks to YouTube and a few apps. You can do workouts or go for walks or even ride your bike. Here is an app and channel that are both free. (you can do whatever you prefer):

Yoga with Adrienne: She is a well loved YouTube channel with over 6 million subscribers and she is quirky and down to earth. She does mini yoga classes from 5 minutes to an hour.
Nike Training Club: It offers heaps of free workouts and also features wellness and nutrition guidance from experts.

Take 10 mins to Zen:

When we’re stressed about something (such as coronavirus), our thoughts tend to speed up. Taking 10 minutes or so to practise mindfulness can help produce a sense of calmness. Smiley minds is a great option as they have nice and easy meditations. Taking ten minutes to zen helps you focus on each body part and make your mind more calm and focused. It can be as simple as lighting a candle and reading a book or listening to soothing music and focusing on your breath. You can also write a journal reflection.

Chat online with friends:

Being quarantined messes with our social life. However, being isolated doesn't mean you can't chat with your friends online. There are many online apps which allow you to chat with family friends or school friends just to get a nice catch up. Here are a few apps that I have used and are great:

House party: You can video call you friends and see them as well as play games with them online. This app is a fun way to interact with your friends even when they aren’t with you.
Skype: You can skype people from all around the world!

Do something you love:

Distraction can be a good thing. Allow yourself to zone out from what’s going on in the world. Doing something you love really helps calm you down and takes away all the distractions. Something I enjoy is cooking as you can learn new recipes and eat it in the end. For me it's a way to take off my mind from the crisis going around and just focus on mixing things together or having fun.

OR

Learn something you have never done before:

You can learn a new instrument or learn a new language. It’s a nice way to pass time and have a bit of fun.

I hope online learning is going well and if you're stressed, use these tips. Remember it is very important to go easy on yourself and take time for self-care!

Rusha

Year 9

Hello Everyone!

Hope you are staying safe and healthy during this tricky period. Being in year 11 VCE, I wanted to share some insight into learning remotely for the past week. All my teachers are very passionate about making sure remote learning does not affect our journey into year 12 and assuring that we actively contribute as well. Our teachers set us work to complete and submit by the end of the lesson and have google meets to explain work or to ask for help. Some teachers even share lessons recorded on screencastify which I personally really enjoy as well. They reply to all our emails and if we need help, they send us extra work for practice if we still don't have a great grasp on the content being taught. I'm very grateful for my teachers for putting in a lot of effort to make sure we thrive in VCE. This week most students have had SACs online which are either conducted on google forms or sent to us to be written manually with teacher supervision. It definitely is very different to what we are used to, but we are slowly adjusting to these changes and keeping a positive attitude towards school.

Something I've been doing recently to cope with staying home is making sure I cut down screen time as we are already glued to our screens all day for school purposes. So usually after school, I try to spend most of my time either doing some sketching, gardening with my mum or going on a run to limit my screen time and get active throughout the day. This is a great time to spend time with your family and work on yourself to improve to your best abilities. Throw on a face mask with your siblings or parents or start watching a new show on Netflix! I've recently been watching Money Heist, a show with 4 seasons that is super thrilling and exciting. I've even learnt a couple of new recipes by facetiming my grandma.

So the best advice I can give you right now is to use this isolation period to catch up on work from school, and go ahead if you feel organised and try new hobbies that you may actually end up really liking! Anyways, that's all from me and I hope I can see you all very soon!

Ishwarya

Year 11

Hi GEC, This is your SRC rep Zohar!

Throughout this self-isolation time there has been A LOT of free time! It was rounding up to week 2 of isolation and I considered using my time productively. So I thought how about reading a really page-turning book? Or watching a heart-warming movie?

So here are a couple of recommendations for you!

1984 by George Orwell - This book is under the dystopia genre, and even though at the start the world of novel seems like an ‘averagely perfect’ world, things are in fact very far from that. This is an interesting, thought provoking novel that kept me turning the pages until the end. I recommend this book for Year Nine and above.

A movie that I would recommend to any ‘love-crying-in-movies’ people is The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It is such a touching movie. The storyline is based around an innocent character called Charlie, and his life going back to school after a traumatic experience. There is also a book of this movie, and it explains the plot in more detail. I loved it!

Zohar

Year 9

A day in the life of a year 7 student learning from home

Hey I am Nathan, a Year Seven SRC rep.

Well, waking up in the morning is easier than you think.

I wake up, get out of bed and go for a 30 minute run with my mum and sometimes my younger brother. This clears my head and gets me ready for the day. I get home, eat some breakfast and have a cup of tea whilst checking my emails for school. Then at 9:00am, I have school during the normal times we have at GEC. I get to see my peers and check up on everyone at the same time as completing my work.

When I have finished school, I either play with my brothers, check up on friends and chat with them or I play with my friends on my console. I could do these things for hours but I have a limited amount of time. When my time has ended, I like to eat dinner with my family. Sometimes we eat in front of the TV and watch Star Wars movies. If it is not too late I will talk to my friends a bit more and then If I am feeling tired I will go to bed, like anybody else would do.

Importantly, I am trying to keep it as normal as possible, in a world that is far from normal at this time. This is my advice to you.

Nathan

Year 7

Key Dates

May

June