| Year 7 | B | R | G | S | N | W |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 8 | B | R | G | S | N | W |
| Year 9 | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | X1 | X2 | X3 |
| Year 10 | B | R | G | S | N | W |
| Year 11 | B | R | G | S | N | W |
| S8 | 743 | 464/864 | 883 | 998 | 999 | Rothwell's Bus |
| Lockdown (with schools closed) |
| Not in school (self-isolating) |
| Partially in school (some forms/members self-isolating) |
| In school |
Got some memories of the Coronavirus Lockdown 2020/21? Click here to see the log of good times from the Lockdown and here to see the diary from Isolation.
At the start of March 2020, many still didn't believe in the idea that schools would close as a result of coronavirus. One week before school closed, teachers decided it might be a good idea to actually set up some Google Classrooms and hand out a number of booklets in case of a closure. By this time, about half of school was off and all BRGS had done to prevent the risk of the virus was put up some suspiciously alcoholic smelling hand sanitizer that ran out after a day.
Everyone had become finally used to the idea of not being in school. The weather was unusually warm and therefore many took it as a sign that they shouldn't be spending time sat at a desk doing schoolwork.
The thoughtful Mr Reeves decided that whilst everyone was panicking over their exams and online lessons, what more would we want but online assemblies? Those who watched the assemblies will have seen Mr Reeves transform from a man who couldn't get hold of any pasta in supermarkets to a man who was broken and dishevelled by the realisation of not being able to do live assemblies and stand outside form rooms ready to instantly penalty point students who sat on desks or threw stuff into the bin.
May? Another month, just a blur. Everything just mixing into one. Some people tuned into their inner chef and made enough banana bread to feed a small country. Others used the time to finally binge that 8 season TV series they've been meaning to watch. Some were (temporarily) productive before resorting to wearing pyjamas all day and going to bed at 3am at the earliest.
Mr Reeves and various other teachers were beginning to have too much fun with the joy that is: The Internet, and more specifically Google Classroom. They began posting Facebook memes, even more assemblies, quizzes about how many doors there are in BRGS. Also, partaking the trend where you dress as a famous painting, mass producing TikTok videos, virtual escape rooms, and plenty more things with unusual titles that graced our email inboxes each day at 7am. Some students also designed some lockdown stay at home posters, will (instantly outdated) memes to convince the generally public to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.
School had finally realized that students would want a timetable to be able to organise their work, as many had just fallen into the habit of doing the subject they minded least or only the work that they had to hand in.
Some Year 10s and Year 12s (now 11s and 13s) also returned to school for one day a week for 4 weeks in classes of about 12. Not much learning took place as many were just so surprised to see people again and spent time catching up (not much time as no one had done anything).
Some students were shocked to walk in and see teachers with amusingly long hair (Mr Reeves in particular was sporting a somewhat makeshift ducktail hairstyle).
July couldn't come sooner for most, apart from teachers who used the opportunity to cram in as much work as possible before the official summer holidays commenced. The summer holidays soon arrived and were a well earned break, although in many peoples' opinions could have lasted a bit longer considering after a week of school half the year groups were sent home for online learning anyway.
Well, finally we were back in school with everything back as it was before we broke up for Lockdown (or so we were told). However, when we got back to school, we were fooled! No classroom changes between lessons, less teachers giving out penalty points, not allowed in most parts of the school and outside spaces. It was clear this was going to be the new standard.
If you were to listen to some of the teachers, it seemed as though they thought COVID-19 didn't even exist, or that opening that one window and giving everyone hypothermia would rid of the virus. They said this as obviously because schools were a covid protected workspace, and coronavirus cannot enter without permission.
Less than a week in, we had our first case of coronavirus, and you could tell that the teachers were shocked. With the form 7N and a handful of people off the 743 bus sent home to isolate, school continued as normal (or new normal) with us all keeping our fingers crossed it wouldn't happen again.
Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. On Monday 14th September, Year 9, 10 and the rest of the 743 bus was sent home to isolate, after another pupil from each of the Year Groups was sent home to isolate. Most buses were now seeming quite quiet…
On Wednesday that same week, a Year 9, who had been on the Rothwell's bus tested positive, with half of the top deck being sent home.
Then, on Thursday night, a Year 11 (who got on the 999) tested positive, with their year group and half the top deck of the bus being sent home.
Sunday morning! We had done well enough to last a full 2 days without a new case, but it wasn't to be. Another Year 9 or 10 tested positive and as a result, most of the top deck of the 883 was sent home to isolate.
20th November 2020. To be honest, we're now easily on more than 20 cases - there's an SLT member walking in with a list of names at least once a day now. Wonder how long it'll be until the whole school has been home at some point, surely there's only like 180 people that haven't isolated yet…
There was a second lockdown (informally known as lockdown 2) throughout all of November after the UK government got bullied on Twitter (not confirmed) - you still had to attend school though (which included still getting on the school buses). Unsurprisingly, cases didn't drop (also don't tell anyone this but no-one followed the rules).
As December hit, the school was in shambles about what to do about the upcoming Year 11 mocks (or trial exams as some teachers call them) and didn't inform us that we were going to do them until a few weeks before, so that left a lot of revision time and like usually no-one was stressed and everyone was super calm.
It was also revealed that these mocks may or may not contribute to your final grade (we still don't know as of February 2021).