Lockdown: The reality of training to be a teacher during COVID-19

It takes years of studying, qualifications and placements before a student teacher can have a class of their own.

Can you imagine having to do all that during a pandemic?

For 24-year-old Amy Price, that is her reality…

She’s currently training to be a P.E teacher at her former secondary school King’s Langley in Hertfordshire.

Amy has noted that working with her former teachers has made a difficult period slightly easier: “I can ask them how they’re feeling. How can we deal with this?

“My teacher mentor was my teacher so I can ask the stupid questions.

“If he says: ‘are you okay?’ and I say, ‘no’, then I can get that support.”

She admitted she struggles with her mental health, and the restrictions don’t help.

Amy said, “The first lockdown I was in the primary school.

“I was in every single day, even half-terms, bank holidays. It got to the point I broke down and cried because I was so tired.

“The main thing the headteacher wanted us to do was to keep them happy and to keep them safe. Fine – I can do that.

“But it got to the point where that was making me unhappy because I was so tired and other staff members weren’t pulling their weight.”

Amy confessed that putting on a happy face to younger children is a lot more exhausting than it seems.

Amy said,”When you’re feeling rubbish inside, and you’re not okay, but you have to pretend you’re okay.

“You have to be that bubbly person…having to be that happy person all the time you get home and you’re just knackered.”

“It’s tiring. Some teachers have the art of pretending they’re fine, but deep down they won’t say anything to anyone else because they want people to think that they’re fine.”

However, Amy is optimistic about the future and believes that training to be a teacher during a pandemic may well make her a better teacher.

She said: “This isn’t going to be forever.

“I think people forget that. In however many years’ time I’ll look back and be like ‘easy, you want me to adapt on the spot – I can do that.’”

Video:

 

Read more by Paul Tregunna: Beyond Joe Wicks – why teachers worry the lack of PE will have lasting effects on children’s health