Page 4 - Herioter 2021

AUGUST

Back to East Lawns in the midst of the world’s biggest run to Goldenacre – but competition against
other schools was some way off.
cultural festival; the school was swelled by new
pupils in virtually every year group; exam grades
If anything symbolised the difference a
school – at National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher had pandemic would make to Heriot’s it was the
absence of the ever-popular term card. In
been awarded via teachers’ estimates for the first
time ever.
‘unprecedented’ times, it is hard to commit to
Session 2020-21 would, nonetheless, start in
finally! a way like no other. Just 12 months earlier, no anything. We would prepare for the worst while
hoping for the best.
But let us not dwell on what we could not do,
pupil could ever imagine being told to wear a
mask in corridors, and upon entering a classroom for what we could do were the simple things – and
to sanitise their desk. Very soon, the routine was the surely the best things. Like eating lunch with
Three days. That was the extent of pupils’ school established. Initially, the refectory would not your friends; like running about on the lawns; like
time in August, as the month swiftly cascaded open for lunches. Junior School parents were not sitting in a classroom, not in front of a screen. The
into September – but three days was all it took to allowed into Greyfriars and instead formed lines pages that follow reflect that positive theme –
remind us what we had missed so dearly. Some across the playground at pickup. School trips were fresh starts, thinking of others, and gratitude.
159 days after the Covid-19 pandemic forced on hold and external speakers told to stay away.
Heriot’s to close (and stay closed) for physical Games and PE could resume – and buses could Mr Jonny Muir
teaching, lessons restarted in classrooms across
the campus; after a weekend that seemed to
come too soon, the Monday – the last day of
August – represented the first Monday of face-to-
face teaching since March 16.
It might have been a culture shock, with
bleary-eyed young people (and possibly teachers)
getting used to the insistence of alarms and bells,
or even a time of tentativeness and worry. Largely,
the opposite was true: the atmosphere in the
playground, in corridors and in registration classes
that first Thursday morning was feverish. We were
back – and for that we were grateful.
New sessions always bring difference. This
time around, the BBC was not encamped on

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