Transcript
2020 for me has been a one of a kind year. Mine started great when I represented my school in Dubai for a sports competition, and the day I came back from Dubai they reported the first case of Covid-19. This meant that my school had to close down and we all had to enter isolation. The year 2020 has come down to be a year where there’s been incidents like the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. It was hard for you to know if anyone in the protest had the virus and you came in contact with them so it wasn’t the safest option but they did it because of how bad and disgusting racism was. It was important because I wanted to fight for justice and to end police brutality and stuff like that. 2020 has taught me about self-respect and being grateful for my health and my surroundings and my family has been a key role in me as they’ve guided me through hard and happy times. They’ve also helped me with school and they’ve also taught me how to cook, they’ve taught me how to clean and stuff like that.
When I first heard about corona I was so worried and I was so scared. Then I heard on the news, I heard that people would get sick and they would feel really bad so then I was really worried and scared. So my family always makes jokes and I always laugh, because the jokes are really funny. And they make funny jokes all the time to make me more happy and not being scared anymore.
During lockdown I didn’t feel happy because I didn’t get to see my brothers and sisters because there was coronavirus. I didn’t like it during lockdown because I didn’t have much fun. I don’t have my trampoline anymore. I miss my brothers and sisters because when it was lockdown I didn’t get to see them and I felt very sad.
Before lockdown I was happy but then when lockdown came it became dark because you couldn’t see anyone and you couldn’t go out. And then we can’t play with my friends and then we can’t have fun because you can’t touch, and you can’t like, so, with the balls you can’t touch the balls cause of corona. And before we had balls but now we can’t. We had to do like this online work that so when in school we don’t miss our education by not going to school and it’s different work cause it’s not with a teacher, you’re not in the classroom and you don’t have books so I did the stuff on the website and then after that when I came back to school we did more learning. I prefer being in school. I like to learn about around the world and stuff. I want to know about the world, different countries, what’s in this country, what do we have in this country, and what’s the difference between countries.
I like reading a lot at home. I can’t remember all the books, but I’ve read The Bolds, it’s a fiction book and I’ve read a few biology books about the body because I want to become a doctor when I’m older. So, my work, basically I have the spines of books and they’re going up like stairs, and I’ve divided them into chapters and each chapter is explaining how I’ve changed as a person. Chapter 1, I was quite rude and expected nothing to happen. I was rude and dishonest. Chapter 2 in March and April lockdown began. In Chapter 3, May and June, I was bored, lonely and had no motivation to do online school. In Chapter 4, July and August, I hated the new normal and I wasn’t ready to go back to school and I also lost two friends. In Chapter 5, September and October, I became smarter, became more positive and gained eight new friends in my class. In Chapter 6, November and December, I’ve been kind, happy and I think this is my best me.
During the pandemic, me and Jenna couldn’t communicate. This is important because we have known each other since birth, and we couldn’t have spoken to each other which could have changed a lot. Pupil 2: But luckily we are still best friends. We probably could have been embarrassing when we met but when we saw each other we were really, really happy. This has taught us life goes fast and to spend every minute with the ones who you love. Me and Jenna had signed up for different schools and we might not see each other much. Pupil 2: For my future, I will spend a lot of time with the ones I love.
I was really bored during Covid-19 but my friends cured me, such as Wilson over here. Pupil 2: That’s why we are best friends! I have actually lost my mum’s best friend, I don’t want to say how because of respect to the dead and I can’t really ask them if I shall speak or shall not. Yeah, that’s happened, um, but it’s changed me in a good way. I am more nice and responsible. So this is our story of 2020.
Then I heard about lockdown and the coronavirus and I didn’t like it so then I had to stay in my bedroom playing with my toys. Sometimes when my mum calls me then I come downstairs to eat some lunch. I was mad because my brother was annoying me a bit and I didn’t like when he was annoying me because he was being, he was just, he was like [sigh] hitting me and stuff but then I told my mum and I got a bit more calm but then when I was going past I was playing in my garden by myself because my brother was at home sleeping and then I got a bit sick because it was getting a bit cold and I wanted to stay out for a little bit longer but then I got a bit sick. Then I got a little bit more sick but when I was getting better I started to get a lot more calm and I didn’t, like, get mad again because I was okay.
I believe in God. God is kind and he made people. God lives in the sky. So all the rain is cause I heard of the coronavirus and people were dying so it’s sad. Sometimes I can’t see all my family members. I play hide and seek with them in the house. I came back to school after the lockdown. I liked playing with my friends and I enjoyed learning new things.
Through lockdown, I couldn’t see my friends and go to school and I felt a little bit anxious. Sometimes we play snakes and ladders with my siblings and we play some games. My dream is for coronavirus to go away and um, to spend time with my family and my cousins. And 2021 to be a better year.
First I was really happy and then I became really sad because I heard that there was Covid. At first I didn’t know what Covid was, but after a few days passed I finally figured out what it is. I feel angry that it was killing people. I got really scared and sad that it might kill people, like it could kill people in my family, and I felt sick of Covid after a while. Soon I heard that the first lockdown was over, and I was really happy that I got to see my friends. I was also sad that I couldn’t go anywhere near them, I couldn’t even touch them. I was just scared because I saw that one of my family had symptoms and they got tested for corona, but I was really happy because they were negative. I became sad because we went on a SECOND lockdown on the 5th November. I was really angry and I wondered if Covid would ever end. I didn’t have to go anywhere else, I was trapped at home the WHOLE year, the whole year I couldn’t go anywhere except school. I thought about my friends. I would like to do a zoom meeting with them. I would like to leave behind Covid, I would like to leave behind everything that happened this year. I would like to leave behind everything, except Year 3.
In 2020, um... I had three cats yeah, but then my mum realised they wasn’t happy and healthy in my house so she gave... she gave, um, my cat to this lady who takes care of kittens and animals. It has been really hard for me because... my cats always have been here for me when I was crying I would just tell them what happened and everything like that. It’s just really hard for me... and I can’t do anything because if I do something I will just think about my cat and when I started school it has been really hard for me because um, all I could think about was my cats. And I couldn’t even do my homework, I couldn’t do anything because I would just be sad. And its really hard for me, I can’t move on because if I do something... I will just think about my cat, and yeah.
I only have my mum and dad and grandma. We play together, they tickle me on my neck. Yeah, my mum will make stuff with my grandma. She makes lots of stuff that I like, and she makes chicken. She does really run, we just do exercising, jumping. I go all the way up to my room, for fun.
I felt sad being lonely. So me and my sister were playing ‘try not to laugh’ and then she made a funny joke, cause I was bored and there was nothing to do at home. When we spend time together, playing with my friends, so you can’t touch each other, or talk in each others’ face. No touching anyone or talking to anyone so close and stay 2m apart.
In corona when I was at home, I told my mum ‘are we going to school?’ and she told me ‘no, because corona virus came’. When I was in Year 2 my teacher bought me a book for me to do my remote learning, and there was work every day I had to do. While coronavirus was here, many people have been dying and that’s not good because when lockdown came I couldn’t see anybody, I couldn’t go out to see my friends. They are my best friends. So then, instead of going to see them, what I did is, I video-called them and I saw them. We’ve been chatting about stuff like games. Before we were playing tag, anywhere and all these stuff like that. How we were playing Coronakid is we were choosing someone and then we had to try run as fast as we could because if they, the Coronakid, tags us then they are Coronakid and they tell you who to catch. And then, if they tag you on the head you are a survivor. When there was no corona, I could go out everywhere. On every Friday I planned to go to my cousin’s house. All the time I played and we used to watch movies and played throwing and catching with the ball on the corridor.
When lockdown started at March, I couldn’t go out that much, I couldn’t really see my friends anymore. I had to just stay at home, do my own homework and stuff they gave me from school. We couldn’t stay active that much because, like, we had to stay home. When there’s sometimes that I have breaks from school, I sometimes go outside for a run and do exercise but now we couldn’t do that anymore. We were scared if we might get the Covid or... yeah.
During lockdown, my lovely cat Leo, he spent lots of time with me and cheered me up. From lockdown we have lovely memories together that make me laugh, like knocking the plant over. Before lockdown, when my class went on a trip to Wales, I missed my cat a lot and wished he was there to accompany me. At home, I love cuddling Leo and he bought a lot of positivity into my life and without him my life would be, um, a lot more boring than it is now.
I was feeling kinda upset when I couldn’t go to school and I first heard about Covid-19 and lockdown. So, um, I was feeling sad cause I couldn’t go and see my friends at school but then after some days or months we could go to school and I was feeling really happy and excited so I could see my friends and learn about my education, more than just staying at home. When I was at home I felt a little bit excited with my family spending some time and then we had some fun and so we played games, hide and seek. Sometimes we went out to the park and played tag. I started playing with my sister, it made me really happy but when I went to school it made me more happy because to see my friends. I missed them really much, also my cousins.
I’m happy when I was in lockdown because I could spend lots of time with my family. In our garden I could, like... I have a neighbour and she is my friend and we could talk to each other. There was a hole in the fence. I was just speaking to her, you don’t really have to look in the hole. We were like playing... uh, nothing much though, just talking, over the fence.
I miss my cousins. Sometimes we went to the park. My dad went to Kenya before Coronavirus started. Sometimes we phone him. One day he went outside and we got to look out of the house and I think there’s no corona in Kenya. My dad’s dad is old and he’s sometimes funny.
So this is the part when my cousin came to my house and I came to their house and this is the part when the coronavirus came. I never knew the virus ever existed, I never believed in it. So my mum and my sister searched it up if there’s a virus in her computer and then it was actually true so my mum, so my sister showed it to my mum. One of my cousins lives nearby and the other two lives really far away. I always do video call and we talk about games and our school. They always mute and um, so then the connection goes off and then they can’t hear me. I can hear them but they can’t hear me so that’s why they cut the call a lot. So that’s why we call on direct. I learnt that my sister always teachers me times tables and some spellings on my mum’s phone on google. What made me laugh is when my sister always tickles me and um, says some very funny jokes.
It was a bit hard because my dad wasn’t with me and I hadn’t seen him for three years, he was living abroad and was working there. My mum was busy all the time so I didn’t get to do a lot of things, and my brothers were a bit of a nuisance. And then I heard that my great-grandmother had died, and I was really upset. I was upset but I knew that I had to be confident and I had to be positive. I tried to do my home learning online, it was a bit hard because sometimes I couldn’t find the right equipment for it and I couldn’t always get in touch with everyone. But I wanted to help my mum a lot, so I helped her with lots of things, cooking and cleaning. I helped my brothers as well. I wasn’t really ready for school and I was a bit shy, but I had developed a lot of confidence and I was ready actually, and my mum was ready and my brothers as well.
I went running with my dad and it was very enjoyable and I think during lockdown when you can’t really get out of the house and stuff, I think it made me a bit fitter and I enjoyed running every day. First I was running from my house around St Vincent’s Square and back and then um, we did that for a couple of months every day and then I ran um... 5km or 5.6km and I ran from my house to Battersea Park, around Battersea Park, all through Battersea Park and back. My dad enjoyed it because it was like a thing we could do together and to get out of the house more, he tried to encourage me to do that. It’s very tiring after you’ve done it but when I did my 5km I felt like I achieved something important.
In March, they introduced us to the Coronavirus which was very serious. We got into a lockdown and then we had to bring all of our stuff home. After the day we went home, it was my birthday so I didn’t get to celebrate it in school and our school gave us a website to learn on which is called SeeSaw. We didn’t really, um, get to interact, um..., with our classmates because we didn’t get to Facetime each other. We communicated on the game it’s called Among Us. We were talking about how we felt about lockdown.
So, this is a lockdown when I was inside home. I turned the lights off and I went to sleep for a lot of time but for one hour, but I woke up and then my friend called me and I had to eat dinner so I had to answer it and say I am eating dinner. But then after I couldn’t play with him because it was night time and I had to go sleep. But then, I waked up to go school but my mum said no we don’t need to go school and I asked her why, because of lockdown’s there. Then I couldn’t go anywhere, only I had to travel to my dad’s. Sometimes we go shopping when the lockdown was there but we went to a toy shop when lockdown was there but now we can’t because my dad said the coronavirus case are growing higher, so we can’t go anywhere now. Once we went into my dad’s work and I watched my dad be a guard in his hospital, he’s a star. And then we went home and then we um, and we went and we brushed our teeth and went to bed.
Um... it says ‘the black and the dull colours are when I feel... when sometimes I feel sad and hurt’. And the bright colours are when I feel happy and these ‘H’s are for happy and when the colours are not that bright, sad colours, are for when I’m feeling sad or hurt. This is when I’m feeling lonely. Happy because... because my mum buyed me a new sport watch and then I was feeling sad because I couldn’t... I tried to learn it but I couldn’t, and I tried again and again and then this flower means that I finally learned how to do it.
At home I have toys in my box and upstairs there’s a curtain in my bedroom, there’s a game on it. Footprints made of birds, it’s made of clouds and with rain and then it’s going to be black clouds and it’s talking to Thunder to rain then it’s, then you’re getting wet everywhere and then there’s the cat, lost in the garden. Another cat, four cats are living in my garden. Everywhere, this is a black cat and brown cat and the black cats. Three cats.
Covid-19 in 2020 broke out and a lot of bad things happened like racism and also quite a lot of people got affected by this bad time but um, the NHS they helped many people and without them most of us would have been affected so a big thank you to them. During lockdown I couldn’t really play sports and I really love sports it’s my favourite hobby but I couldn’t do that. I went to the park a few times but I couldn’t see most of my friends and I didn’t have a really great time during lockdown. But in 2020 it taught us how to respect one another and also we had to queue up... we had to queue up in different types of shops so then it told us how to be patient and I have some information about this. Like, for example, we need to look after the planet, our habitats will determine the future if we... if we are um, if there is a safe option to save the planet, you must aim to do that. We eat fishes but some of them sadly passed away and died and not in a good reason, in a bad reason. So now we have to save our oceans and they’re filled with lots of plastic so, yeah.
I was very worried about the lockdown because there was a coronavirus and I was scared that I was gonna get it. I was like, ‘why don’t we just do something that are like social distancing and loads of stuff?’. So we were just talking but one meter like our arm length and then that’s how we were like talking and stuff with my friends and my friends really make me laugh. They’re really nice.
When I watched TV lockdown was here and there was Covid-19 and I didn’t look happy about it. I was really sad and I wanted to cry but I couldn’t cry and if I cried I could have been sad all day. I had to sleep cause, because it will make me happier to sleep and I had a good dream. So the things that makes me happy is dogs and emoji and my sister and my friends. So my sister has been kind to me, she sometimes watches me and sometimes I have to take care of my sister and I have to do stuff, I have to do my homework. I can sometimes play, and I can sometimes do stuff. Like I also love doing braces, I sometimes do my own hair and my sister’s hair and my other sibling’s hair, even my cousin’s and my auntie’s hair.
I have been trainspotting in the UK around the London area during lockdown. There are these pedestrian crossings on railways around the UK, usually I try driving there, well my dad drives. When we find one we get out of the car and watch the trains, they actually get quite close. I saw some 755s when I went camping with some friends. One of them gave me a horn, um... also I saw a 745 when I stopped off at a crossing which is local to my house and it gave me a 6 tone- sorry, 8 tone horn which was quite good.
In lockdown I didn’t get to, um, invite my friends to my birthday and so I celebrated it with my family. In my free time I did stuff, eating, playing with my brother and online learning. Before I went to bed I read books but I didn’t get to play with my friends.
Pictures could tell a story. How I felt during lockdown and how I felt when I came back to school and all the different feelings that I felt, um, through coronavirus. I felt lonely and um, sad. The blue, red and black represents me feeling sad, angry and in the dumps. When I came back to school it was all happy so that’s why I had red, yellow and I felt calm and happy then. And all through now I've been happy and excited to be with my friends and um, come to school, see my teachers, see what’s going to be happening soon and I’ve been happy and just excited for now in school.
During this lockdown I’ve been pretty lonely, especially because like my brother, we don’t engage as much as he’s older. But I always had my best friend Millie beside me and I would always try and communicate with her when I could cause it’s quite lonely just like, just doing your homework and then you have nothing to do. I always have most of my friends beside me because I used to go to school every day and like if there’s something bad happening in my life I would tell them about it but now like I don’t really have no one to talk to. But Millie, she literally, even if I text her, one minute later she replies straight away. We try Facetime, we facetimed the other day and her dad came in and said ‘stop facetiming’ so that didn’t really work out and like, we played games together and stuff like that online or what we could find on Roblox.
My mum helped me through all the hard times I've had during 2020. I lost my best friend and I haven’t been able to see my friends a lot so it’s been kinda like lonely for me. She is like always been there for me and when I’m feeling upset she would just sit and talk with me and make me feel better. I’ve learned more of my maths because my mum has been helping me a lot with my maths. My mum’s taught me some of my language, Arabic. We have this old book and It's full of Arabic names and stuff, so she’s teaching me that.
During coronavirus, lockdown came yeah, and it became more and more worried about ‘I’m gonna get sick’, and then eventually I did get sick but then I escaped from it. Then it turned sunny again, then I felt like great, a great and often I felt more worried because I think lockdown’s gonna come back again. They get more and more and more dark and stuff, and then finally I... eventually it went back to normal.
Everything became sad when my great, great grandmother died and my great, great grandfather died because I wanted to go and see them. Sad, and it broke my heart. They lived in Ecuador, there are small shops and there aren’t many colours in Ecuador. Ecuador might be a little bit poor. When lockdown finishes, happy because I can see my family again. Sometimes I play on the phone Roblox with my cousins, they join me. When I was at home um, my cousin came to my house on Friday and she, she told me her name on Roblox and she got the phone from me and then she went to Roblox and looked for her profile, she saw her profile and then friended, I friended her. I’ve been playing it more than others. I can’t do the usual things I used to do before lockdown. When we went to a river, the river was nice and clean so I could go in there and I caught some fish to take care of. The sad part is that it died because when I was sleeping all the water came out and it just leaked and the fish died. I didn’t get a chance to name it.
I couldn’t watch any football games because of the pandemic. I watched football with my family, I watch it with my two brothers, my dad and my mum. Now we all support the same team which is Arsenal. I feel really excited when I watch football, sometimes I feel nervous. Covid-19 stopped all of the football games. This taught me not to be an addict to football.
I think the pandemic has affected me playing sports because you can’t really go outside for that long. We can’t really talk to your friends since you have to stay 2m apart and always wear a mask so it’s hard to hear each other. Sport is really important to me, since I was raised to love it and I'm pretty good at most sports. Although we haven’t had lots of tournaments or football matches it’s still been really fun and helped me through lockdown.
Before I was at school but then... one of my teachers, I was at home, and I didn’t know why I was at home but then I, just as my mum told me, there was corona so I said ‘what does that mean?’. She said ‘it means people are dying’ so I got worried and then I stayed bored but I was happy school wasn’t there but it was still boring for me. So I missed one of my friends when lockdown happened and we was going to Year 3 and I missed one of my friends and he didn’t come and I found out he went to his country again, India. Because I was happy when lockdown finished, but then I thought corona finished when we could go to school but corona was still there but we could still go school.
So I writed, I had a lovely day with my family but when I stayed with my dad I missed my mum and I asked my dad ‘what time will my mum come?’ but I was happy. I played and I study, then I played with my games a little bit and then I sleep and then I watch TV. I like this picture because I remembered since I had been with my friend. For me and my mum went to Disney and then I had buyed a Disney toy. I went back home to open that toy and then I was so happy and excited. This is my friend and this is me.
My life in 2020 it started off really good, then like in March everyone got quarantined. The school said to take all our stuff home and the school introduced us to a new thing called The Microsoft Teams. We really liked it and most of my friends when you’re like on playtime we would normally stay on the call and talk to each other about what’s going on. I’m black and because there have been a lot of things that have happened to human beings this year people, some people would say they would not like to repeat this year.
I have a very strong and keen passion for tennis. At the start of the year I thought that this year I would have a really great year for tennis. Yeah, we usually book a court and it was like our routine but um.. I couldn’t do that during the lockdown, I just had to find other alternatives. I really like tennis because my dad inspired me to play tennis because he started playing tennis at the age of 16. He saw that I had a really strong passion for tennis and he knew I could be, um, a really good tennis player. I would say playing tennis is a form of catharsis for me because it just, I just let out all my emotions when I hit a ball and it just makes me feel really relaxed and loose and um, makes me feel really, really, happy.
When I was sent home I was confused because I don’t know why I was sent home. One day on TV I heard that they were doing a lockdown. So that’s why I was sent home. And then for a bit I was happy because I got a little break from school, and then I got boreder and boreder and I felt like sleeping all day and I couldn’t go anywhere. I was home, I was sad because I couldn‘t do anything. I hope next year that we won’t be at home.
My mummy likes drawing like flowers, calligraphy and she also does some sculptures. She does bubble writing sometimes. We’ve done some Islamic stuff during lockdown, like she taught me how to read the Quran and um, I was very happy because like it was such a beautiful tune. And the first Ayat was like, extremely exciting. In Allah subhanah wa taala and his angels, his books, his messengers and the last day of fate good and bad, it is all from Allah. Love is simple and to me it’s so like... we can get together and we can like, get together and stay together forever.