As a former (I’m not completely certain) 5th form pupil, the world around me as I see it has changed tremendously.

What were once IGCSEs, or summer exams, are now a forgotten tale of uncertainty - I guess I’ll have to wait two years to know how it truly feels to be sitting in an exam hall, knowing that what I do in there will affect my future - directly or indirectly.

There is some relief in that looking at how my mock IGCSEs went, it certainly could have been much worse. I think I did well, overall.

These last few weeks of ‘virtual school’ have been interesting, to say the least.

I’ve found the tasks set have been reasonable in scope but as a student of the logical sciences and mathematics, I have no idea what the other end of my school has been offering.

Regardless, I would say that the school has done a pretty good job to make the most out of the situation and, with around 700 pupils in the senior school alone, I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for teachers.

Meanwhile, when not busy with school work, it has been interesting to see the changes in my day-to-day routine. Obviously ‘going out’ to places has been significantly reduced.

I have found myself attempting new skills - one being the guitar, picking it up after it had been sitting there in the corner, dusty and unused.

One skill I’ve been developing further is magic - I even did a couple of ‘live magic’ sessions via Facebook for my neighbourhood to keep people entertained.

Now what about the rest of the family? As a ‘three person crew’, we try to keep things interesting in as many ways as we can. We watch television and How I Met Your Mother is gradually becoming one of my favourites.

Another thing we’ve begun to do as a family over recent weeks is reading a couple of pages from a book called Zen: The Art of Simple Living by Shunmyo Masuno, who is a Buddhist priest.

I would thoroughly recommend this book as it contains an abundance of wise steps that take you closer towards achieving a zen-like personality.

My dad is a doctor and his time to relax is rather more limited than it is for my mum and myself. While we do occasionally get to watch television together.

He is treating patients with a variety of illnesses (some with suspected Covid-19 symptoms). It goes to say that

today’s heroes are certainly those who have found themselves on the front-line during this particular

global battle.

Life has changed in many ways. Personally, I’ve tried to use the time as effectively as possible, and I hope

that this has been the same for everyone. While we use the virtual world to keep in touch with

people, sometimes we should also take the time to truly admire what we have around us.

Ishan Sarkar.