how to spend quarantine if you're in y12

It’s extremely strange at the moment, as you should be revving up and revising to get ready for your exams but instead, poof....they're cancelled. What may have seemed like a pipe dream to some people, has actually happened.

We briefly went over how these are now being calculated in our blog here and there’s a more thorough, up-to-date explanation on the situation on the government’s website here as well.

But just because exams are cancelled doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be doing anything right now. Who knows when you’ll be asked to return to school, but you don’t want to turn up and be completely unprepared.

So what exactly can you do right now to prepare yourself for when you go back and what might the changes be when you do?

The easiest way is to continue with what you should have been studying. Make sure you’re keeping on top of all the work that your teachers are sending out to you. Ensure you aren’t just doing the bare minimum, it’s much easier to take in what you’re learning if you have some investment in it. Turn it into a game where you’re rewarding yourself for getting a particular amount of work done. Set yourself targets for the next day in the evening, so you’re always waking up with a goal that day. Find what motivates you and don’t be scared to experiment to find what works for you.

Other ways you can be maximising the times indoors is to start thinking about the future after the world settles into a new normal. Think of your ambitions and goals and plotting out how you might be able to achieve these. Start researching the routes it takes to get into those careers. Is it university? Apprenticeship? Degree Apprenticeships? Work schemes? The more you find out now, the easier it will be to plan out what your next steps are.

Universities and employers don’t just hire on the grades you get. They also look at the extra curricular things you do and what your attitude to working and learning is. Take the extra time you’ve now been given and use it productively. Have a look online at the courses you might be able to do to improve your skillset, a lot of these are now free or at a low cost. Future learn offers a variety of online courses and are a great starting place to look. Maybe you want to learn sign language, do a beginners business course or even learn some computer coding and get on the way to being the next Bill Gates!

There are loads of ways you can be preparing to get back to school and improve yourself. We know it seems weird right now but keeping yourself busy is absolutely vital for your well being when we’re stuck inside so much, not  being able to do what we usually enjoy. So make the most of what you can!

When schools do start again it's likely that they'll operate differently. It could be staggered start times, social distancing procedures being in place, remote learning. We simply don't know how and when we might get a better idea of the environment we'll find ourselves in after Summer, so keep an eye on the news your school and teachers are sending, so that you can best prepare yourself when you start to hear what these changes might be upon returning.​

If you want more advice and tips on living in the Covid age have a look at our daily minute motivations here that are uploaded to our Instagram account and subscribe to our youtube channel advice videos, and our monthly newsletter.

Author

ARON TENNANT is  the Talks and Editorial manager for Push. He is originally from South Yorkshire and has a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Sheffield. He also has an MA in Creative Play and Screenwriting from City, University of London and came runner up in Nickelodeon's international screenwriting competition in 2018. Alongside Push he does screenplay work for independent production companies and is working on his own independent film projects