What’s it like being a student at Elea High Online School? In this blog article we ask a Year 9 student to tell us about a typical day studying online:
What time do you start your school day?
For me, it’s 9am as I’m located in Spain which is an hour ahead of the UK start time of 8am. I like starting at this time as I finish at 3pm, the same time as my friends in the village and I can hang out with them after school.
It must be tiring being on a screen all day – how do you manage?
It’s not that bad. We have a break mid morning and 45 minutes for lunch. Additionally, some of our lessons are preparation lessons where we may read the textbook section or prepare a presentation to give to the class. We get homework but again, there’s time in the school day to do it so I don’t have even more screen time after the school day ends.
Do you miss being with your friends in a physical school?
No, not really. I’ve made good friends with the other students in my class and we meet up online after school sometimes to game or just chat. When I was in a normal school, I’d often just meet up with my friends online anyway.
What do you think are the benefits of learning online?
There are no distractions for me. I used to get really distracted by other students in a school class but there are no distractions now and all my online friends want to learn too.
How do you access learning resources, complete your work and hand it in?
All the information we need and the textbooks, are on the learning platform which we have quick access to. We often do our work either in Word or in Class Notebook where the teacher can see us doing our work – it’s quite cool really. Our work is submitted on the learning platform and we get it marked and feedback sent to us by the teachers.
Would you go back to a physical school?
I don’t think so now. I find it easier to learn online and I like my classmates a lot. I’m sure I’m learning more and better online so it would not be a good move for me to go back to a real school.
What would you say to a student considering joining Elea High Online School?
I admit I wasn’t sure about online learning to begin with. I did a trial day and found I liked it. If you’re not sure, try out a taster day, you see how you learn, what the teachers are like and also get to meet who might be your new friends. I’ve been online now for nearly a year and I still love it. I’ve learned so much more, my teachers really care about me and my success and I’ve met some great friends. I especially loved the school trip to Cyprus. I’m already looking forward to next year’s.