[jacinda]

I'm glad my girls are teenagers and that their school has been well organised for distance learning. Not all High Schools here have been so lucky. Lots of senior students at other schools have had to leave to get a job and help their families, so I'm feeling for them.

We started the year off normal, then went into a 7-8 week lockdown where the kids did all online learning. The teachers would set tasks each Monday, and my girls just worked away at it during the week. After lockdown everything returned to normal for 102 days. Kids went back to school full time, with very little learning missed.

Then we got another wave of Covid in the country, and our city went into lockdown again for 3 weeks. We come out of it this weekend, and the kids go back to school Monday. As far as we've been told, nothing changes with their school schedules. Regular classes as normal, but with an emphasis on helping those seniors who will be sitting exams at the end of the year.

The overall impact of online learning on my 13yr old has been nil. The 16yr old however, has 3 practical classes. While they've managed to work on the theoretical aspects of those classes over lockdown, catching up on the practical elements will be interesting. I think she's still in a good space to do well in her exams though. Fingers crossed we don't have anymore lockdowns between now and end of year. Highly likely to happen though.