Ava in Year 8's account of ice skating during the pandemic:
I am very lucky to be able to skate during the pandemic, but to make sure it is done safely we have to travel to Essex everyday. It’s been tough to fit all of my schoolwork in, let me tell you about my typical day;
When I wake up in the morning, I have a zoom class with my personal trainer. Each day we focus on a technique that can be translated onto the ice. My favourite class is on Wednesday when we work on jump elements.
After this we are off! It takes an hour and a half to get to Romford and during this time I have to catch up with school work I have missed.
When we arrive I have to warm up before I can get on the ice. With COVID-19 restrictions in place, I have to do this on the high street and I usually get funny looks from people doing their shopping.
After my warm up I am allowed to enter the building, but before I can get on the ice I have to get my temperature checked and show my negative COVID test results. We have been put in a skating bubble which means I see the same people everyday and I have met some lovely new friends.
Now I can skate, I get on the ice at 10:30 and I can stay on for an hour and a half. During my session I work on new elements like my triple jumps (this means rotating in the air three times). I fall over a lot!
Once I finish my session, I get back in the car, have my lunch and finish off any other school work.
I then arrive back at school for 2pm ready for my afternoon lessons.