View from a Harborough schoolchild: 'Perhaps we’ve taken our teachers for granted, just as we have NHS workers and people who work in supermarkets'

Your Views - by Freya Bale, Year 8 pupil at Welland Park Academy.

School shutting due to the coronavirus was exciting at the start. It seemed like a bonus holiday, no getting up at 7am.

For the first few days, me and my friends had a lot of fun messing around on apps such as TikTok where we follow dance routines.

Now at the end of week three a lot of us are missing school, it isn’t the holiday we thought it was.

We miss sitting down in the classroom and being able to listen to the teachers, I never thought I’d be saying that! Even being able to walk to school is greatly missed.

Homeschooling is challenging as there are too many distractions, there’s always something else to do, whereas at school there’s a positive pressure to get the work done.

And again, the teachers really do make all the difference in helping us understand a subject and are there if we get stuck.

Perhaps we’ve taken our teachers for granted, just as we have NHS workers and people who work in supermarkets.

Not that I have been able to go in a supermarket recently, they are mainly off bounds to kids.

More generally, it’s sad to see people still overreacting with panic buying as its means restrictions and supply shortages.

Do people really need to grab crates of canned food and lots of bottles of hand sanitiser?

This behaviour will only lead to chaos. Many people are having to go without, including big families as there are restrictions in place on the amount you can buy.

Hopefully, when the coronavirus and lockdown is over people will start to do things differently, such as taking hygiene more seriously and making more of an effort with the older generation, now they know what it’s like to be isolated.

For the next few weeks, me and my friends will still be doing TikTok dances, chatting online and making plans for the future.

We’ve got a trip to Market Harborough town centre to look forward to, that will feel like a big day out.