On Tuesday, 10th March 2020 Qatar schools and businesses went into a full lockdown. Schools were advised to move to online learning due to the growing threat of Covid-19.

Our online learning adventure began with Canvas, Zoom and Teams becoming a part of our student, parent and teacher's daily lives. Students went from days filled with coming into school, spending time with friends, after-school activities, sport and full and active lives to staying at home, spending time with their families and online learning. This was a steep learning curve for everyone, with students teaching parents how to use various online applications and vice versa. Parents working from home and assisting with online lessons and homework during the workday. It was certainly not the year any of us expected to experience, and movies such as Contagion, Virus and Outbreak became more of a reality than any of us could have expected.

A year on, these are the thoughts and emotions from our students as we pass the first full year of lockdown, quarantining, Covid tests and the hope of a vaccine to take us back to the lives we were all so used to.

So what are we left with, one of our students summarises this very well . . . we are left with hope . . . because . . . hope never dies . . .

Enjoy this retrospection from our students on their lives since the lockdown began and the pandemic changed our lives forever.