The post was written on June 28, 2022, using the mental record of my feelings, the archives I store away in my emails and Drive, and news media, including articles and news reports from Australian media outlets.

Mid-January 2020: Hearing about the virus for the first time I distinctly remember the beginning of 2020. The year began very awkwardly on a number of fronts, and this was before we had even heard of the virus. I was working my retail job over the summer break and had taken leave to go interstate with my family.

I remember very clearly first hearing the news about the COVID-19 pandemic while on the trip. I had thought that it would be something that would come up and die back down very quickly, and I made this known to those around me. How lacking in foresight I was! This was true for a very short amount of time - we had a couple of cases enter Australia late January, before the whole issue seemingly dying down for a couple of weeks.

Mid-March 2020: The calm before the first wave

On 19 March, 2020, all students at my school received an email from the Dean of Students.

Dear Boys, Thank you for the efforts that you have made to slow the spread of COVID-19. Through washing hands, coughing and sneezing into elbows, placing tissues directly in the rubbish bins and avoiding touching your face we have been able to keep Scotch safe. We continue to follow the advice of the Australian government. This includes keeping school open until otherwise directed by an official agency or until the local environmental changes make it unsustainable. Scotch remains open and will remain open until you receive an email from the Principal informing you otherwise.

On the school’s website (in the News Feed) we are listing events that are cancelled or postponed.

Yesterday’s trail of online learning was a great success. We all tried a new approach and while improvements can be made, it is reassuring to know that we can make academic progress over the times ahead. We are also looking at ways that we can continue to support each other, both within our community and in the broader community. There are many people for whom this is an extremely difficult time and while we are all inconvenienced, please continue to look after those around you. If you feel you need support, then please contact your Form Teacher or Head of House, the Chaplains or the Psychologists.

In the meantime we continue to face this situation together, taking steps forward as best as we can.

I clearly remember teachers having to go to a lecture theatre at my school one lunchtime to learn about online learning programs and how to use them.

In the few weeks before we shut down, we had learnt that many of the neighbouring private schools had shut down prophylactically, against the wishes of the Feederal Government. Government schools obviously could not shut down without direction of the State Government. The School released a statement to parents, to the effect of stating categorically that we would not shut down because it was important to follow the rules of the government.

On Monday March 23, 2020, we had 1718 infections in Australia in total, with 364 new cases across the country, and 59 new cases in Victoria. That morning, I was just about to walk out of the house but had luckily checked my phone before doing so. This was during a period I didn’t rely heavily on my phone so was very lucky to have checked it before leaving the house. I saw an email from the School informing us that the School was closed. We received notification through email that a parent had tested positive to COVID-19. Just going through the email archives for that day, I would receive 15 emails that day, and 1534 emails that entire year, much greater than every year before that. That day, we also received notification that no test SACs would be conducted while at home, and that we would transition to remote learning for the rest of the week. That week was originally going to be our last week of Term 1.

The Victorian school holidays for government schools had been brought forward from Friday 27 March to Tuesday 24 March. However, many private schools, such as my one, continued to run online classes during this week, which helped make us familiar with the systems. This would be one of the advantages being at a private school during the pandemic conferred upon us VCE students. At this time, we were using a program attached to our Learning Management System called Big Blue Button. We would later move to Zoom meetings.

Over the next few days, my Head of House encouraged us while we were at home, sending us pictures of the new school building, and other emails periodically with trivial aspects of working at home life (many of our teachers would transition to remote learning too). An email from Thursday 26 March makes reference to my Housemaster’s pet dog.

Remote learning – Wave 1
Remote learning during Wave 1 completely changed the way we used technology. Initially, all classes used a program called Big Blue Button, which didn’t allow us to show our faces during classes. Eventually, we would transition to Zoom in the second wave, due this program’s lack of interactivity.

We maintained all classes. Some schools, including many government schools and even private schools didn’t hold classes as normal. Some had one class per week and delegated work to students for the rest of the week. We were lucky in that we still had classes every period, and that teachers were still passionate about teaching us and ensuring that we would thrive academically.

We returned to school for the final few weeks of Term 2. They let Year 12s and Year 11s back first, and slowly eased other year levels in. There was talk of the Year 12 formal going ahead in house groups. We had to wear masks I think, maintained social distancing, hand hygiene etc. Our new dining hall also opened and we had exclusive use of that for the first few weeks.

Oh yeah also George Floyd died and BLM protests happened at the end of May. Everyone was saying what’s gonna happen next month? An alien invasion? (For context the bushfires had happened in January).

5km radius, 4 reasons to leave home, social distancing and flattening the curve…looking back we endured a lot. Some may say we saved many lives, but looking back it was absolutely exhausting. A lot of people were and continue to be socially drained from months of isolation, of seeing no one except those you live with.

*Wave 2

We had gone back to school for the last 3 weeks of Term 2. And also the first 3 weeks of Term 3. Life was returning to normal…right?

Haha lol nup! Wave 2 began after the virus escaped from Hotel Quarantine. There was a whole blame game about who was responsible…the government, security, protesters. We were glued to our televisions every day – when would the Premier speak and announce the cases? Eventually they would announce it before the press conference, but I don’t think more people watched the news than during those times. Cases rose from 1 to 10. Oh no! Back down to 5. Great. Up to 25. Oh crap. Up to 50, 90…700 a few days later. Back into lockdown we went.

*Leaving The Second Wave *

Oh great! We have a GAT exam first week back. It was kinda a test trial to see if schools could maintain social distancing for exams. Our school was able to get it done pretty well. It was really emotional seeing everyone though – we were still technically in lockdwon

At this point, most people still hadn’t gotten the virus. Not many people knew someone who had the virus (unlike now in 2022). Most people still hadn’t come into contact with it.

VCE Exams

By the time VCE exams around, the curve had been flattened. There were minimal new cases every day and most schools were able to sit VCE exams. I was worried I would get covid or be a close contact, but nothing eventuated. The government said they would delay VCE Exams, but it ended up being only a few days later – that was probably just so that they wouldn’t be seen to break their promise earlier in the year. Chunks of the study design were also taken out due to the ‘lower conduciveness of remote delivery to education’ (I will write a whole nother article on this).