Adjusting to In-Person School

By Jane Elkins

How has COVID affected the switch back to full in-person school?

The 2020-2021 school year was difficult for students and teachers alike. Even with the luxury of hybrid learning that provided a semblance of normalcy and the hard work from faculty and staff to still engage the student body in events, most would agree that the school year was far from normal. Rigid COVID guidelines made it so there were no attendable sports games, fully in-person school events, and in general, the social atmosphere that makes school fun was missing. Bishop Ireton’s initial switch to fully remote learning occurred in the spring of 2020 as the result of nationwide school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Once the stay-at-home order was lifted in Virginia, some schools and businesses were allowed to reopen with strict safety protocols. As a result, Bishop Ireton administrators implemented rigorous adjustments like social distancing, daily health checks, quarantine requirements, and close contact tracing that made classroom learning safe and compliant with CDC guidelines. This allowed Bishop Ireton to offer both hybrid and optional fully remote learning for the 2020-2021 school year. The student response to the new system was varied. Some appreciated the more relaxed online learning environment the hybrid model provided while others were indifferent to it. Senior Colin Nash, who followed the hybrid model last year, felt that the hybrid model made learning more comfortable. “It was nice to have a balance between online and in-person instruction,” Nash says. “Teachers worked hard to engage students both online and in the classroom so I always felt on top of my classwork. It was also nice to attend class at home in pajama bottoms.” Senior Courtney LaRochelle, who was fully remote during the 2020-2021 school year, expressed her difficulties with her year fully online. “The social aspect of school was completely missing”, she says. “I didn’t get to see my friends or play the sport I love at school.” This year however, Bishop Ireton students are a little more fortunate. Recent changes in COVID severity due to the development and availability of the COVID vaccine and plateauing COVID infection rates has allowed the 2021-2022 school year to proceed fully in-person. Students can now attend each and every class in person, as well as fully in-person school events like sports games, Homecoming, pep rallies, and Mass. “I finally get to get to see my friends again in school which helps me know that I’m not alone when dealing with schoolwork and mental health.” LaRochelle says. “I also get to play soccer for my senior year and actually have my friends attend games.” From an academic standpoint, students seem to appreciate fully-in person instruction after having gone through a hybrid school-year. “Although hybrid learning was more comfortable, fully in-person learning forces me to actively pay attention and participate at all times during class,” Nash says.

Other students like LaRochelle, on the other hand, feel more challenged with in-person learning. “Online learning gave me a lot of free time to focus on my schoolwork. Now between soccer and other extracurricular activities, I feel a lot more stressed than last year, but I am ultimately happy to be able to bond with my team and classmates,” she says. Dealing with the restriction created by COVID-19 over the past year and a half has led many studenst to cherish the things we missed throughout quarantine and social distancing. If students want to continue to have fully in-person education we must follow Bishop Ireton’s COVID guidelines. Bishop Ireton requires all students to wear masks in all areas throughout the school with a few exceptions: namely, when eating in the cafeteria, when outside, or when playing a school sponsered sport. Otherwise, students must wear a mask properly on their face, fully covering their nose and mouth. Although the original stay at home and mask mandate was lifted in the summer of 2021, the arrival of the Delta variant made masks necessary once again. According to the Virginia Department of Health, the Delta variant is the main virus circulating throughout the US and is exponentially more contagious than the original COVID-19 virus. Although some argue that masks are ineffective in preventing the spread of the virus, numerous peer-reviewed and scientifically backed studies have proven otherwise. One study from the University of San Francisco found that mask mandates greatly slowed down COVID-19’s growth rate by comparing infection rates before and after mandating masks in 15 states. The study concluded that after 3 weeks of wearing masks, the growth rate slowed by 2 percent. “People should be considerate about the people around them. We are so fortunate to be able to have all of the things we missed last year, however the pandemic is not over and I think sometimes we forget that.” says LaRochelle. “Wearing your mask properly helps stop the spread and protects the people around you.”