Year: 2020_21
Module: Coronavirus
Variable: COVGOVT

Below are the responses to the open-ended question:

'What do you think have been the most difficult things experienced by children and young people during the Covid pandemic that must be addressed by Government?'

Note: Responses were edited for grammatical reasons, if necessary.

   

  • 1.Basic mental health issues for example, I experienced suicidal thoughts and tendencies. It was proven very difficult to find any source of help. 2. There isn’t enough support for teenagers with their decreasing mental health in regards to studying and motivation.
  • 1st  Self-isolate, did not mind it myself but I know of classmates who hated it. 2nd  Restaurants and cafes closing and being eat out only.
  • A better understanding for those who are not comfortable with online learning and communicating via social platforms.  Especially when the person experiences high level anxiety and ASD.
  • A decline in mental health
  • A decrease in the standards of education
  • A few teachers didn’t put much effort into teaching during the lockdowns, however most of them were fine.
  • A lack of mental stimulation and overexposure to advertisements during the pandemic and a lack of jobs coming out of it. I also find the decision to close chapels and places of worship abhorrent and draconian, arguably the most difficult thing for young people will be to realize the extent to which the government overstepped its own powers
  • A lack of social contact with others, self-isolation and too much reliance on mobile phones and social media
  • A lack of social interaction leading to worsening mental and physical health and the way exams were handled, the majority of our teaching was online from our home environments and we have still had to do 3 weeks of tests with topics from lockdown where many people weren’t able to learn to their fullest ability
  • A lot more awareness must be spread for men’s mental health
  • A lot of people I know have struggled with their mental health during this all and have been denied help or guidance to get through it. Personally I used the lockdown to work on myself physically and mentally and so my mental health got slightly better but is still not the best
  • A lot of young people have had bad mental health over the course of the pandemic especially when we see the news or when we prepared to go back to school.
  • A lot of young people’s mental health decreased during the course of the pandemic and there has been a lack of understanding about this topic from the government.
  • A lot of young people’s mental health have been affected and a lot of social anxiety has been developed due to lack of socialising.
  • A proper education. A lot of subjects were skipped out on during school because there was not enough time in the school year due to the lockdowns.
  • A right to openly talk about your emotions and struggles.
  • A rise is communicating to parents about mental health.
  • Abandonment by government funded healthcare service. For both mental and physical illnesses, and an increasing stigma behind certain mental illnesses.
  • Ability to have recreational time with friends inside and outside, and for societies like football clubs and orchestras to be allowed to run with masks and distancing if indoors, or caution if outdoors.
  • About the amount of workload students had to go through and the extra amount of exams that students had to do.
  • Abusive households.
  • Access to educational facilities at home.
  • Access to IT, access to appropriate medical support, mental health during the lockdown, clarity of communication when things are opening etc.
  • Access to mental health guidance.
  • Access to resources.
  • Access to sports.
  • Accessible and reliable rural transport for young people. Last two years of experience of our lives have been lost - young people are too old for fairs and things but too young for clubbing or festivals or larger events. Young people sacrificing a lot and at this age our whole life is social and we have no ways or means to change things or voice, [we] were all forgotten about because its parents or business people who don’t have our point of view.
  • Activities and resources such as basketball courts etc. outdoor resources in small towns
  • Addictions.
  • Additional stress from the sudden change of plans in school.
  • Adhering to the social distancing measures whilst seeing their best friends again for the first time through lockdown.
  • Effect on mental health but it’s sort of useless for the government to try and address that so idk.
  • Allowing children to reach their full potential in their classes and tests.
  • A lot has been missed out in terms of education and social life had been impacted a lot.
  • Although the COVID19 pandemic has been hard on everyone, I don’t think the government truly realises how harsh it was on us children/teenagers. These are the years where we interact and gain the most friendships and experience more things, but COVID19 halted it rather suddenly.
  • Amount of school work and unrealistic expectations.
  • Amount of school work with little help from teachers
  • Amount of work given.
  • Any sort of abuse.
  • Anyone child at the age of 3 or more who hasn’t socialized with other people may have troubles socializing with others.
  • As much as the virus is a pandemic, the government only took into consideration the physical health of people and not the mental health. I know of cases where people under the age of 25 have felt even suicidal due to the extreme measures taken. Also the media has proved itself to strike fear into people and at some points have twisted the truth to make matters seem more extreme.
  • As young people are being kept at home, it prevents them from seeing friends and socialising with others which if often essential to many teenagers for their mental health and wellbeing.
  • As young people we need to socialize and over lockdown that was extremely difficult as we could only talk to each other through a screen so if there is another lockdown it would be nice if us young people could get together in small groups of 2 or 3 to have some kind of face to face socialization so that we don’t negatively affect our metal health.
  • Assessments.
  • At the start of lockdown we got scared, nearer to the end of lockdown we began becoming almost different people capable of achieving more than we were at school and learning much more than we did at school. If school is not quickly adapted to a new society of innovation and rapid changes and growth, NOT SMALL modifications to the education system, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland will fall drastically behind the rest of the European Union, American, African, and Asian countries.
  • Bad mental health
  • Bad mental health and difficult test arrangements in school.
  • Bad mental health from being isolated from others.
  • Balancing school and leisure. I was overworking and being overwhelmed. Being stressed like not enough hours in a day. Keep routine, I know my friends found it hard too, I wasn’t too bad especially in the recent one.
  • Been locked in closed environments and felt lonely not seeing family or friends.
  • Behind in education. Lack of extracurricular activities for fun it’s just been nonstop work. Financial difficulties. MENTAL HEALTH.
  • Behind on schoolwork and a drop in mental health.
  • Being able to get help in a classroom.
  • Being able to go out and see friends.
  • Being able to go out with friends.
  • Being able to keep themselves entertained and focused whilst keeping their emotional and mental health healthy.
  • Being able to meet up with our friends and being able to go to school and get face to face teaching.
  • Being able to socialise and see friends.
  • Being able to socialise and shop.
  • Being about to go out and socialize with my friends as I haven’t seen some of them in 2 years.
  • Being active in a world where they can’t go outside and the Internet holding them inside.
  • Being alone and not seeing their friends.
  • Being at home all the time.
  • Being away from school and friends.
  • Being distanced from friends.
  • Being expected to sit exams.
  • Being expected to work even harder than usual and having holidays compromised,
  • being isolated and not being able to see friends,
  • Being isolated and not socialising,
  • Being isolated for long periods of time away from people their own age and having to do multiple exams when going back to school after the lockdowns.
  • Being isolated from friends and missing out in face to face teaching.
  • Being isolated from people for too long has an effect on young children and makes them very shy.
  • Being isolated from school friends and the changing of grading processes was stressful. Allowing restrictions to ease for young people allows them to finally socialise with each other, assuring them that grades will be predicted to the best of their ability taking into account the stress of the COVID pandemic in deciding grades.
  • Being kept indoors, not being around other people than your family. Getting proper education.
  • Being separated from friends.
  • Being social to other people.
  • Being socially isolated as we are in our youth and we as teenagers need physical socialisation to stay mentally stable.
  • Being stuck at home without being allowed out to see friends.
  • Being stuck in a place you’re not safe in and being too young to do anything about it.
  • Being stuck in the house.
  • Being stuck inside and it affecting mental health.
  • Being thrown into loads of assessments whilst being told all examinations were cancelled.
  • Being told back in January that we were to sit no exams then couple months later we were told that we were to sit assessments in a couple weeks that will go towards our final grade. They said that we need students back in school to help us with our mental health but I feel like it put so much pressure on us and made us stress out.
  • Being told exams were cancelled and then having to sit exams.
  • Being told we had no official GCSEs, then being told a month before exams we were doing last year’s GCSE papers with no study leave.
  • Being told you’re not allowed out.
  • Being unable to interact at a social level with friends and family. The lack of clarity from the department of education and the examination boards on assessments and qualifications has made many, such as myself incredibly anxious, and has caused much stress amongst my age group.
  • Being unable to meet with friends face to face
  • Being worried about educations since GCSEs were cancelled and it’s been really hard to be educated properly.
  • Better home learning. More notice regarding exams.
  • Better mental health help services, mental health should be spoken more about and normalised to not be okay all the time.
  • Boredom and lack of connection with friends.
  • Boredom and mental health.
  • Boredom mostly.
  • Cancelling GCSEs and replacing them with up to 30 assessments which is more stressful than 12 GCSEs.
  • Can’t see friends
  • Can’t see their friends as much.
  • Catching up with missed learning.
  • CCEA exams.
  • CCEA saying we had no tests and then we were bombarded with tests
  • Child and teens mental health.
  • Children and young people have not be taught in the correct way during COVID. Some have had serious declines in their mental, physical and emotional health.
  • Children and young people’s lives have been effected the most by the pandemic. Young people’s mental, physical and social health have been severely damaged due to coronavirus and many have not been able to cope or have turned to unhealthy coping mechanism. The government must prioritise mental health facilities for young people and make mental health less of a taboo topic in our society.
  • Children and young people’s mental health have been affected by the coronavirus and not enough work has been done to help improve it
  • Children and young people’s mental health should be talked about more as well as making more places available for them to seek help and talk to someone. Also how exams were dealt with at the last minute leaving the GCSE and A level students disadvantaged for the real world and what needs and will be done about it.
  • Children and young people’s mental health was negatively affected by coronavirus.
  • Children experiencing isolation from their friends and young people struggling to teach themselves schoolwork
  • Children feel trapped in their own home as they couldn’t go out in lockdown and some not even onto their street which strongly affects their mental, social and emotional health and wellbeing.
  • Children feeling isolated, the government should remove restrictions but warn the vulnerable to stay at home.
  • Children from families who were not well off were not helped to the extent they could have been in my opinion. This can range from internet access to food issues.
  • Children have been out of routine and been lonely with not seeing their friends at school.
  • Children having to all wear masks in school and not being able to have a normal childhood.
  • Children in abusive homes were not able to get out and may have suffered great injuries and abuse at home. Also children from poor backgrounds depending on free school meals will have lost out and become malnourished.
  • Children in poverty being unable to access proper school meals.
  • Children living in poverty have had less money than usual and often can’t afford food and stuff.
  • Children may have suffered depression or anxiety due to not being able to cope with the restrictions set.
  • Children’s mental health and peer pressure.
  • Children’s wellfare, living conditions, lack of proper food and support at home.
  • Churches provide needed spiritual, mental and emotional support and should never have been closed during the pandemic.
  • Clarity around exams, assessments, GCSEs and A levels. Stresses of online learning.
  • Clear guidelines.
  • Clearer guidance on exams and qualifications.
  • Closure of gyms really affected me. If gyms were kept open I would’ve been happy.
  • CONFINED TO THE HOUSE NOT GOING OUT
  • Constant closing and reopening of sports clubs with some unable to open. Inadequate support for the arts sector performances to allow teens to develop.
  • Constantly changing what is happening with GCSEs.
  • Constantly going in and out of lockdowns prevented us from having a routine and seeing close friends and it affected most people’s mental health. I found missing out of school was quite difficult as it might affect my plans for the future as I need good grades and being out of school and doing online learning didn’t help that.
  • Continuous assessments are harder than one exam and learning during lockdown is not easy so makes it difficult to remember.
  • Continuing schoolwork over the lockdown was easy but having GCSEs cancelled only to have to do 3 or 4 tests for each subject over the coming weeks was much more stressful and difficult.
  • Coping with the unknown exam stress and changing dates.
  • Cyber bullying. Lack of contact with friends.
  • Dealing with mental illnesses alone, feeling as though there have no control over school outcomes.
  • Dealing with your mental health problems.
  • Deaths, mental health deterioration, tension with parents.
  • Decline of mental health.
  • Decreased Mental Health. Lack of mental health services long waiting lists etc.
  • Definitely mental health difficulties.
  • Definitely school grades, education, mental health and seeing loved ones.
  • Definitely the rising mental health problems that are running rampant during Covid.
  • Depression.
  • Depression.
  • Depression or anxiety from being separated from their friends and not being allowed to participate in extra-curricular activities.
  • Depression, anxiety, thinking about self-harm and suicide, people who are in abusive families who were stuck in there house, people who didn’t get food as they weren’t in school, couldn’t get free meals.
  • Destruction of mental wellbeing.
  • Deteriorating mental health.
  • Deterioration of mental health and lack of support systems available to everyone.
  • Developing mental health issues during lockdown.
  • Didn’t affect me.
  • Didn’t get enough time in school which will affect the future e.g. P1s,P2s and especially year 12s doing GCSEs
  • Didn’t get to meet up with friends, couldn’t do any sports i.e. football and GAA.
  • Difficulty completing schoolwork due to lack of motivation and poor mental health.
  • Difficulty to learn new topics online.
  • Difficulty with school and examinations, loneliness, feeling depressed.
  • Difficulty with school work.
  • Disruption to education and socialising.
  • Disruption to education and stress of exams.
  • Disruption to major exams and lack of face to face teaching.
  • Doing small things like going to the cinema or shopping etc. with friends can really affect mental health. Not knowing how to adjust back to normal life such a school
  • Doing the work and tests for school.
  • Don’t know, didn’t affect me much
  • Downfall of mental health
  • Eating disorders
  • Education.
  • Education.
  • Education.
  • Education
  • Education.
  • Education.
  • Education.
  • Education.
  • Education.
  • Education.
  • Education.
  • Education.
  • Education - receiving help and good instruction.
  • Education and Exams and trying to get back into school.
  • Education and exams, during lockdown we lost out on a lot of education and a lot of learning, then we got put into exams with barely any face to face teaching which was very stressful and will reflect on our grades which we will want to obviously do well in but due to covid we never got the opportunity to achieve the grades that we would be fully capable off if we never got made to sit exams etc. if lockdown wasn’t about.
  • Education and failure to support children taking GCSEs and A levels.
  • Education and having to sit Assessments on subjects that were not taught face to face unfair the year before pupils were only off school 2 months and had a full year of face to face teaching for their GCSEs. I have more tests 3 per subject with less teaching how is this fair on students?
  • Education and health.
  • Education and how it had us all stressed of what was going to happen next and how we all each do work differently in school and how others struggled to do online work.
  • Education and mental health.
  • Education and mental health.
  • Education and mental health.
  • Education and not being able to go out.
  • Education and school being cut short.
  • Education and seeing other people.
  • Education and social life.
  • Education and the ability to see friends and classmates.
  • Education and time in school has been greatly disrupted and has affected young people’s grades, this has also affected our integration into higher education and the world of work. This along with other factors due to lockdown, has increased the anxiety and stress levels of the majority of young people and the government hasn’t supported us.
  • Education being affected. Mental and physical health being affected.
  • Education - can be difficult to properly learn subjects at home. Social life although we get to talk to friends online it isn’t the same as meeting with friends out of the house and doing fun activities.
  • Education. Completing examinations and assessments after having missed out on so much learning time with the teachers, as well as not being able to discuss things with other members of the class. As a result of this mental health has deteriorated during this time as many are unable to cope with this pressure and often feel very isolated from others.
  • Education exam results, fitness and social skills
  • Education has been affected a lot, I am now going into lower sixth with no exam practice from GCSE. I am also worried about what A levels to pick as I have missed a lot of content from GCSE. There has also not been a lot of regard for the wellbeing and mental health of young people, as all the confusion and uncertainty of exams has put a lot of stress on young people, from being told no exams to a pile of assessments which also caused a lot of stress for young people as almost no time to revise. My friend has become very mentally ill because of the way the past year has been handled she went from being a top A student and because of all the stress became very anxious, started hurting herself, developed an eating disorder, and is now on suicide watch. The government think they are helping us but have no idea how badly they have affected us, they need to talk to the young to understand what it is like for us to go through this. The fact exams were once again a mess is a disgrace.
  • Education has been greatly affected due to online learning as it is very hard to keep up with the amount of work teachers set as well as them expecting you to be able to get full marks in everything now as they say that we have had plenty of time to study for exams when in reality most of my days were spent trying to understand the work they sent us while they would never answer emails when I was asking questions. Another problem that coronavirus created for young people is that I now find that my social skills are no longer as good as they were due to being locked up in my house for months on end without being able to go out and speak to people.
  • Education has been highly affected.
  • Education has been hindered yet exams still were taken place.
  • Education has been negatively affected in a number of ways, with many people not completing their courses, and the mental health of many young people has also suffered.
  • Education has been severely affected, exams were replaced by more exams, schools only increased stress already experienced by pupils during lockdowns, and the much worsened mental health crisis.
  • Education has suffered. Mental health, lack of food, lack of space, toxic environment, friendships suffered too.
  • Education is not one of the more important matters being viewed while trying to help relieve the virus. I have completed Year 11 and 12 without any formal exams.  While some teachers were helpful with online learning, others were not.  Posting reams of notes on subjects without any teaching or explanation of the work was extremely difficult.
  • Education. Mental health as people are lonely. People who have eating disorders could go over the top and not get the exercise that they need as they’re advised to stay at home.
  • Education mishandling.
  • Education negatively affected.
  • Education of young people during this time.
  • Education online was not nearly as effective as it is in person so some students who haven’t put the effort in may be falling behind. And it was tough not seeing friends and family so allowing those restrictions to lighten even more would be good.
  • Education some people may have felt they had no help and struggled. Also getting help for their mental health.
  • Education system.
  • Education was affected badly. A grades have went down and the way the grades have been tallied this year makes no sense. They replaced around what 8 GCSEs that we would do with about 30 in the same month, added pressure will just affect our mental health.
  • Education was negatively affected.  Mental health has been affected.
  • Education wasn’t good
  • Education we missed too much.
  • Education would be a lot harder for others.
  • Education, education was handled poorly grades do not truly reflect what could be achieved with proper time and resources, Mental health has gone down a lot and the stress and worries of students have been exacerbated by the incompetency and lack of sympathy from the education minister and the Education Authority.
  • Education, not seeing friends and family, not being able to take part in sports or team activities.
  • Education, training and social isolation.
  • Education. I feel that students have been lied to with regard to planning exams and their contents.
  • Education. The government were not very clear on how grades would be awarded for GCSEs and A levels. This meant a lot of children were very uncertain about their qualifications.
  • Educational Help During the the Lock Downs.
  • Educational independence.
  • Education, exams.
  • Education, Parents, GCSEs.
  • Effect on social media.
  • Encourage people to keep in contact with friends and family even if it is online and ensure young people are aware they aren’t alone, Loads of people have been struggling over lockdown and if they haven’t been doing the best academically it isn’t as big of a deal as it would’ve been had Corona not come about.
  • Even without Covid I found it difficult to ask for help but now hate social places and people surrounding me in shops I feel panicky just about people and not about getting sick or anything like that. School was hell I have never had bad mental health but it is now terrible and I can only talk to people on Childline.
  • Events e.g. sports, Bible camps, SU dinner dances, formals, school trips and family travel being cancelled.
  • Exam pressure.
  • Exam stress.
  • Exam stress has been heightened due to a lack of physically attending school.
  • Exam uncertainty and pressure.
  • Exam worries and mental health problems.
  • Examinations and not enough work cut down on subjects.
  • Examinations have been completely unfair as we have not been provided with the education but have been tasked with increased exams.
  • Exams.
  • Exams.
  • Exams.
  • Exams.
  • Exams.
  • Exams.
  • Exams.
  • Exams.
  • Exams.
  • Exams.
  • Exams.
  • Exams.
  • Exams.
  • Exams.
  • Exams, work.
  • Exams, mental health , physical health, company of their peers , school work,
  • Exams and assessments.
  • Exams and mental health.
  • Exams and pressure from exams.
  • Exams are a mess this year. Kids need to be vaccinated if they are going to school. Good ventilation in school and more general protective measures in schools.
  • Exams being upcoming with no help on how grades will be chosen. Not having the ability to talk with friends face to face.
  • Exams everyone is stressed it was all left last minute and they changed plans for school every week.
  • Exams still taking place inside schools in substitute to GCSEs which noone felt prepared for.
  • Exams, mental health and social skills declining.
  • Exams, not being able to go out with friends, not being able to take part in clubs, mental health issues, feeling lonely, boredom, not always having access to proper education, lack of school meals provided for children who receive free school meals.
  • Exams, School work load, Not seeing friends every day, Missing out on things like formal.
  • Excessive school work and more examinations than needed.
  • Excessive testing due to lockdowns.
  • Expecting us to do our assessment GCSEs when we haven’t been given the proper learning.
  • Face to face teachings or spending time outside socialising.
  • Falling back in grades as teachers are rushing us to get our work done quickly.
  • Falling behind because of too much work. Not enough support. No motivation.
  • Feeling alone and isolated from friends. Lack of social activity lead to young people being more social anxious. Anxious about the future exams, future jobs.
  • Feeling isolated as we can’t be with friends and additional pressures from schools.
  • Feeling lonely.
  • Feeling lonely and isolated from the world and others, being anxious about the future, being unable to see family/friends.
  • Feeling of isolation.
  • Fewer opportunities as companies have closed down I believe that we will find it harder to get jobs and have better education opportunities if we do not have enough money in the economy.
  • Financial inequalities e.g. some young people being unable to access the internet for online learning during the lockdown.
  • Financial issues.
  • Financial issues and mental health issues.
  • Financial struggles or mental health.
  • Finding help especially with counsellors when feeling depressed or anxious or finding help for any mental health problems and being out on long waiting lists which can take nearly a year or over to get counselling.
  • Following protocol was getting annoying and Coronavrius doesn’t even seem real. For me it’s an annoying thing that gets in the way.
  • Food and health
  • Food sources children who received free school meals may have relied on that meal as their main food source of the day and during the Covid pandemic they were unable to receive food necessary for maintaining their health.
  • For children in abusive households, school could’ve been their safe place away from their abuser and due to lockdown they couldn’t get away from the abuser and had to be with them every day.
  • For children the lack of social interaction would have long term affects. Teenagers especially those sitting exams e.g. GCSEs A levels, were given no support from schools and put through assessments they were initially told were cancelled. Children were expected to go back to normal straight away without any closure.
  • For children, I believe the most difficult things they may have experienced is the absence of having friends around, thus could.ve made them feel lonely. If a family had multiple children it could be difficult to get the essential supplies for online learning, this could.ve been frustrating for both the children and teachers.
  • For me doing exams instead of GCSEs after months of home schooling.
  • For students leaving school I think we were all very sad not to experience normal traditions such as a formal.
  • For Vibes.
  • Free school meals for those not in school because lockdown.
  • Free school meals. The examination boards changing their minds every five seconds about how the exams were going to work after it was decided that the external exams were not going to take place.
  • Friendships.
  • Friendships.
  • GCSE and A Level classes have been told different things every week on what will happen in terms of exams, causing young people to stress over the unsure actions that will decide their grades and futures.
  • GCSE and A levels should have been treated with more thought process and made a bigger change to the way results were achieved.
  • GCSE grades for pupils. My grades have dropped from not being in school, and I’m worried about the scores of my exams that I have recently sat, as I feel they didn’t go as well as I hoped.
  • GCSE grading systems etc.
  • GCSE, AS level and A level exams and grades as students haven’t had much help and guidance and were bombarded with 3 exams for each subject over 3 weeks when they were told exams were cancelled with very little notice. Puts a lot of pressure as a grade doesn.t determine who they are and can affect their future when they deserve way better.
  • GCSEs, A Levels, Mental Health, Physical Health.
  • GCSEs have had to be altered and we did not study enough work for them.
  • GCSEs still having far more than just 1 test since exams have been cancelled to reduce some stress its only caused more with far more tests and assessments
  • GCSEs were supposed to be cancelled, but we are still doing test towards our final grade yet we haven’t been in school half the school term with little time to revise, which is not a fair or true reflection of pupils abilities.
  • Get better mental health support, really. Really. We already know to breathe and calm down when stressed yet no one tells us how to actually calm down.
  • Get vaccination
  • Getting access to services.
  • Getting education during lockdown. Pupils in key exam years in the dark about if exams such as GCSEs and A levels would go ahead. Not being able to socialise with friends and family.
  • Getting graded for GCSE and A Levels as there were more exams than needed
  • Getting less activity and not being able to talk to friends
  • Getting out and seeing friends in person.
  • Getting outside to play and meeting friends.
  • Getting to go out with friends for celebrations.
  • Getting took out of school due to isolation and missing valuable class time especially for exam students as we have to provide evidence to get good grades.
  • Getting used to the restrictions.
  • Go out to play with their friends.
  • Going back to do GCSEs, very difficult for us students to do assessments.
  • Going back to school and going straight into our GCSE exams with not enough face to face learning.
  • Going back to school with people who have Covid and getting Covid and killing someone in your house who is ill at the moment and if they got Covid they would die.
  • Going in and out of school, and now with the very restricted time we have to gather evidence for our GCSEs, it makes it stressful.
  • Going out.
  • Going out.
  • Going out with friends, for example underage people cannot go to beer gardens with friends.
  • Going to school during cases of Coronavirus.
  • Going to see friends and getting to do stuff like cinema etc.
  • Guidelines that don’t make sense and contradict each other.
  • Gyms and sporting facilities closing.
  • Hard to socially interact.
  • Harder to learn at home.
  • Hardly any contact with friends.
  • Having Corona.
  • Having no school but then being expected to complete assessments and coursework.
  • Having no space and the toxic family members.
  • Having nothing to do and having no social life, having to be in by 8pm.
  • Having online school, not being able to see friends and that GCSEs have been cancelled.
  • Having social interaction with others was taken for granted, however kids and young people nowadays no longer get that privilege.
  • Having to be separated from friends and family.
  • Having to complete all of our exams in a few weeks.
  • Having to continue to study for CCEA assessments, online school and being separated from other people.
  • Having to cope with mental, social and physical health by themselves for so long. Nobody knew what was going on behind closed doors.
  • Having to do assessments even though exams were cancelled.
  • Having to do exams and coursework under limited time without having done the whole school term.
  • Having to home school.
  • Having to keep up with revision for our GCSEs and A Levels.
  • Having to learn without being in school and having to teach yourself and trying to stay active when all you can really do is stay in bed.
  • Having to readjust after being off so long.
  • Having to sit with your own thoughts.
  • Having to stay at home.
  • Having to stay at home with no real life contact with friends.
  • Having to stay in the house.
  • Having to stay in the house all the time and not being able to get places.
  • Having to stay inside and not being able to see friends.
  • Having to stay inside and therefore not able to meet friends.
  • Having to still do GCSEs and A level assessments after them being cancelled.
  • Having been told no exams yet having to sit exams.
  • Health.
  • Health fitness and social life.
  • Help that children can get due to the mental health, so many people are afraid to speak to their parents as well as a teacher as they are afraid their parents will be told and not believed.
  • Help with mental health.
  • Home school.
  • Home schooling a disaster.  Trying to keep up to date with work and no face to face teaching.
  • Home schooling, no exams.
  • Home schooling.
  • How anxiety can really affect us and how much anxiety we can get from being locked up.
  • How badly it has effected the mental health of young people for many different reasons.
  • How exams were carried out. It wasn’t fair that we were told that exams were cancelled one moment, then next we were told we had two weeks to learn two years’ worth of material, when we hadn’t been in school for the majority of that time. The government continues to make the same mistakes continuously in regards to the education of kids with very little regard for us. Students have been disregarded in most of the decisions made and its apparent when you look at how stressed the average student is. The government should address why they refuse to listen to students and young people and also why they continue to strive for normality at the expense of students’ mental health.
  • How grades will be assessed and take into account how many times a person missed days due to things that wasn’t their fault e.g. self-isolating
  • How many suicide related deaths have happened due to the stress of lockdown.
  • How mental health has suffered greatly and how lonely lockdowns have been and How important social life is to younger people.
  • How much at home learning has actually effected the final outcomes of our exam results.
  • How much of our lives we have missed.
  • How much our education has been affected by Coronavirus.
  • How much their lives have changed and that most teens have suffered of mental issues e.g. eating disorders or suicidal thoughts due to lockdown and COVID.
  • How our mental health have been impacted due to loneliness by not being able to socialise and see friends and loved ones.
  • How stressful school is and how under pressure we are to do well. Also exams were cancelled but we ended up doing even more work which was so much more stress as every piece of work we did was put towards or grade.
  • How the Government did not address how work from the 2019/2020 academic year would be worth anything towards exams. As a pupil who was in 4th year in secondary school about to begin my first GCSE exams, this was my biggest worry. Whether seven months of work would be worth anything.
  • How their education has been affected reducing their chances of gaining the best grades possible.
  • How their mental health could be negatively affected because of not being able to see friends and family.
  • How to deal with mental health.
  • How to maintain healthy physical and mental health during a lockdown.
  • How what they have done regarding GCSEs or exams for that matter is very unfair. Such as instead of doing one GCSE for each subject we have had to provide 4 pieces of evidence for each subject. They call these assessments but they are just normal exams but not given the title of it. Puts lots of pressure on us to have to be revising constantly for multiple exams for the same subject. Sometimes even having to do practise papers leading up to the 4 pieces of evidence that don’t get used for anything and getting told it’s for your revision when to do this paper we have had to revise and learn stuff for it. Having to do exams for 7 different subjects providing 4 pieces of evidence for each essentially meaning 28 different exams done each not including previous papers done and putting your best evidence forward meaning some of the other tests you have done well in and put a lot of effort towards just get disregarded. It’s the same as doing the real thing just not calling it that ‘
  • I am very fortunate to have all the ICT equipment and room etc. to study from home whereas some of my classmates didn’t and it is unfair that they weren’t given the same opportunity as me as they had to share with siblings. But it is already too late, they didn’t help as much as they should have from the beginning and most pupils have already sat their exams. Just an injustice in my opinion.
  • I believe it would be, generalised of course, as  sadness, teens already have a high number in terrifying mental health statistics imagine how the lockdown impacted that and us and then imagine a child who relies on social interactions, playing with friends in their school yard etc. to develop and be happy having that stolen from them with basically no explanation I would assume because they wouldn’t understand it so I believe our happiness has been the most affected
  • I believe that being unable to socialise during the lockdowns has had a negative impact on many young people and children, as this is a crucial time in our lives which we would usually be developing through what we learn and do in school and with our friends, so removing this aspect from our lives for an extended period of time may result in children and young people lacking necessary social skills. Self-isolation has also been a difficult experience for many children and young people. Many students that attend my school, including myself, have had to self-isolate at some point in the past year, with some having to self-isolate for even longer. Self-isolating was definitely detrimental to the mental health of young people. Being stuck inside for two weeks, unable to see your friends and only seeing your family from a distance or through a screen was difficult to cope with, and I personally underestimated how difficult I would find it. It also impacted our education, as it was strange and difficult to take part in the online learning when we had started learning in school again. Going back to school was hard to do and a bit frightening, as cases of Covid19 began to increase once schools had reopened. It has also been difficult to social distance in school, as with there being so many people in such a small environment, it has been nearly impossible to stay a safe distance away from other students.
  • I believe that the Government should address the issues that have been caused with young people and their mental health, the lockdown was harder for some people than it was for others and i think that there is not enough accessibility to mental and emotional support for young people.
  • I believe that the most difficult thing faced by young people was the education or lack of education. The uncertainty of whether or not exams will go ahead as well as the limited time to revise or fully cover the subjects with a teacher. Remote learning can only teach so much so much of the time spent preparing for exams were going over things learned over the lockdown which was not cleared up. Then to have just been told the curriculum and then be expected to have an indepth knowledge of this and then go and get tested on the same thing puts a lot of stress on young people. Some subjects I want to do for my A levels I have not properly learned and will surely have a knock on effect for my education.
  • I believe the government could have or raised funded schemes to help young people open up with mental health and difficulties whether it be through families, friends or education. I personally know people that have left school that have had difficulties because of them struggling with education or home life and have been expelled from school when that was the only thing keeping kids my age sane. I believe that not only has our own education system let us down but also the government. Many kids my age have now turned to resources such as drugs and alcohol within their community to help cope with depression, leaving school and home life. I believe if the government have released any schemes or raised funding towards mental health for young people, it most certainly isn’t enough and has not shown effect in many communities. Something big must be accomplished as suicidal rates within young people has increased because of Covid, it hurts to see people tear their life away because they have had unstable relationships with their familes and had unfair disadvantages from a young age. Something more needs to be done.
  • I believe the hardest thing experienced by children was having to cope with the sudden changes to daily life, such as working from home, and the distanced relationships between friends and family.
  • I believe the most difficult things were not being able to see friends physically because of social distancing etc. Along with that, I think mental health of those children and young people were increasing as one cannot go anywhere during that period of time. Also, there were a vast amount of pressures of home learning and the ability to hand in the assignments on time were difficult for some.
  • I believe young people don’t receive enough support through virtual learning and they should find a way to help out more.
  • I definitely believe that young people’s mental health has been hugely affected by the pandemic. Most people’s mental health has deteriorated, including my own. Also, I think that school has been hugely affected. Many people found the past two years really hard school wise, and I know that many people like me are anxious about exam results given that we never done real exams.
  • I do not know.
  • I do not know. Everyone I know had a different experience when dealing with COVID. Some people did not care too much, such as myself and many others, while a few strongly disliked the COVID Pandemic. To me, it is a matter that should be sorted by the individual. The individual should at least try to steel themselves, or manage to cope with an issue, rather than leave it to other people, such as the Government, to intervene. Besides, the Government is not at fault for this pandemic, and they too were unprepared to deal with it. Besides, those people who I said struggled with the pandemic eventually got used to it, especially during the second lockdown.
  • I do not really know that much about things related to Covid other than how it has affected schools and school work as there is less communication between students and teachers making it harder to learn.
  • I don’t know.
  • I don’t know.
  • I don’t know.
  • I don’t know.
  • I don’t know.
  • I don’t know.
  • I don’t know.
  • I don’t really know everyone went through it in different ways but I didn’t like the way they said there was no exams but we had to do 4 exams for each subject what caused some students to be even more stressed.
  • I don’t think there is anything that the government would need to address.
  • I feel as if most young people find it hard to go out and do anything when everything is closed but yet when we go out we are seen as scums and people who get into trouble when we are not.
  • I feel as if Stormont has failed the GCSE and A level students, giving us double the amount of exams is not helping.
  • I feel as though a lot of young people have felt isolated from friends or family.  Some may also feel that is now harder to socialise even if COVID19 was to disappear.
  • I feel some children may not have a good home life e.g. abusive parents so therefore their mental health will be affected tremendously.
  • I feel that children feel more lonely and isolated due to being unable to see family and friends which have impacted on the children’s mental health.
  • I feel that examination and exams and have been poorly executed meaning that even though most schools are not doing exams but what we are doing currently isn’t much better. For younger children I think it’s just been not being able to get the education and socialisation that they would have needed. But overall I have no clue how the Government could have addressed this because of how tough of a situation this is.
  • I feel that me and many other children have suffered from not having enough contact with friends and family. This should be improved as contact is important between us and our families.
  • I feel that the most difficult thing that young people and children have experienced is their mental health deceasing as they are stuck in the house without their friends to keep them company. I also feel that the children that rely on free school meals for their food haven’t gotten it and have been suffering because of that.
  • I feel the most difficult experience for young people was not having enough resources to support themselves during remote learning. The lack of resources such as laptops or textbooks to take home or learn from negatively affected young people especially their education.
  • I felt that i have got less quality education due to the online teaching which will probably affect the result I get in these assessments that go towards my GCSEs. I feel like if I had proper GCSEs instead of these badly planned assessments I could have done a lot better.
  • I have fallen behind, I was an A pupil and I didn’t do well with zoom classes. I may not pass now.
  • I know many people have struggled with not being able to see each other. A lack of extracurricular or external activities has been hard for people. One of the reasons for this is people seeing each other but also being able to progress in areas which can provide qualifications, for example to include on a CV.
  • I know that a lot of people my age have been feeling lonely, especially if they do not get on well with their parents and siblings.
  • I personally believe that many children and young children have been deeply affected by deaths in their family or their friends.
  • I personally believe that young people have missed out massively on social aspects of life. We haven’t been able to be freely with our friends without having COVID in the back of our minds and all the issues that come with it. I also believe that young people have experienced much anxiety due to COVID not only because of school with our GCSEs being disrupted  and having to social distance but the idea of potentially giving some one that you love COVID is very scary and daunting, people are very quick to blame young people for the spread of COVID but this is simply not true and it is just scapegoating, I think that the Government need to address that everyone has a had role in the spread of COVID, not just us young people.
  • I personally enjoyed both lockdowns but I believe that the access to online learning for some could be supported better by the government as many could not access the internet’
  • I personally think mental health has been a massive issue for young people. School has been the most stressful thing ever and it has been very hard to stay motivated and keep up on the amount of exams and revision we have to do. The fact that we were told exams were cancelled due to Covid, and now we’ve had to do a crazy amount of tests every week is very unfair and has affected our mental health very badly.
  • I personally think people’s mental health has been effected and too many people are afraid to speak up and get the help they need, I also think young children’s development has been effected as my little brother could not attend playgroup so he has not socialised with anyone his age and still has problems speaking.
  • I think a lot of people have struggled with mental health during the lockdown, and I do not think that enough resources were promoted by the government to help this.
  • I think a lot of young people gained forms of social anxiety as when the lockdown happened a lot of them just stayed in their rooms and when we came out of it again they felt overwhelmed about being around people but I’m not sure [how] the government should address this
  • I think being kept apart from family and friends. It was really hard as my granny was diagnosed with dementia and we could not see her and my mummy was very sad as she was also caring for her.  I feel young people were caught in the middle a lot between decisions about exams and I felt really sorry for our teachers who were trying their best. The government need to spend money and mental health services for children before things get so bad.  Give us more teachers.
  • I think education needs to be addressed in some way or another. Many my age have missed out in opportunities such as the DofE award due to the virus. I also think we need to take more steps to make things feel more normal at school, wearing a mask all day caused my skin to break out. The tables being separated so we had to sit individually made it more difficult to try and socialise, we have been deprived of improving our social skills due to lockdowns already. I don’t think separating the tables did anything. My school also did a track and trace method to keep control of the virus in our school. If you sat in front, behind, beside or diagonal to a student who tested positive you were also sent home. This however was a bad method in my opinion as it fails to address social situations such as students intermingling with each other during break and lunch.
  • I think for children is that they can’t really understand this sickness it can be very hard to say to a child that they can’t go see their friends or other but definitely with young adults having anxiety and other issues it can be hard with remote learning and not having the same help that they would receive in the classroom
  • I think it is because they are unable to socialise with their friends, they have no one to talk to and unless they lived in semi-rural areas most of them weren’t allowed to go outside.
  • I think it might be not seeing your friends as much and maybe not seeing your grandparents.
  • I think it’s just the fact that young people usually aren’t affected by COVID19 and it’s been hard having to stay locked in our houses knowing it doesn’t actually affect us.
  • I think many peoples mental health has been dramatically affected due to spending so much time alone with their thoughts and being without social interaction, I think these must be addressed by the government or else they will have a long lasting impact.
  • I think mental health and education have been very difficult during the pandemic because of the stress of trying to continue working in an environment that you usually would’ve associated with relaxation and also the stress of trying to stay on top of everything and trying to finish GCSEs when you’ve been at home for most of the year was an awful experience. Mental health would obviously be negatively affected by this stress so it wasn’t a nice time for students specifically, especially for GCSE students.
  • I think one of the most difficult things many young people experienced was a deterioration in mental health due to being confined in our own homes there was a lack of ways to distract us from our thoughts and very few ways to seek support.
  • I think online learning has been very difficult as it’s not the same as teaching in a classroom and when you go back to school you are expected to be prepared for exams.
  • I think some young people have been put in a situation where they are in lockdown and unable to escape from issues going on at home which has made the situation worse and put them in more danger. Lockdown has also brought to light the insignificance [insufficiencies?] of the school system, in my personal experience exam boards just keep changing their minds on how our grades are decided, which parts of the course we actually have to know for our exams and made our future so uncertain which resulted in us just not caring anymore.
  • I think stress from teachers to get things done on time and do other work for other subjects, meanwhile trying to cope with the mental struggles of lockdown, friendships and just home life in general. I feel that teachers shouldn’t push pupils to do things they are not comfortable with. Don’t get me wrong it’s really good to try new things but if someone says no they shouldn’t be forced to do it.
  • I think that many children have missed out on social interactions which has caused an increase in anxiety and depression.
  • I think that mental health over the lockdown period and in general hasn’t been addressed as much as it should be by the government. I think that there should be more resources and help available for those going through mental health issues. And I also think that schools should take a more active role in maintaining and improving their students’ mental health and to cater more to those struggling with mental health.
  • I think that not being able to see friends or groups of friends has been hard not having that in-person communication. But also not being able to see family as in grandparents has been hard.
  • I think that people really struggled with their mental health and wellbeing during the lockdowns considering we were all inside and children miss out in school and time with friends.
  • I think that the education system needs to rethought, homelessness needs to be addressed as well as people living on the poverty line. Catching up at school is another problem as well as how many hours a week we go to school it’s far too much.
  • I think that the mental health of many young people has been affected negatively during this pandemic due to decreased amounts of socialization with friends e.g. many people feel anxious when going to shops and some people have developed social anxiety.
  • I think that the most difficult thing faced by young people is finding the motivation to continue with work whether it is school work or other activities while the pandemic continues. I believe that the Government should acknowledge better the hardship and stress faced by young people, like myself, as they return to school and back to normal.
  • I think that the most difficult things experienced by children and young people is that their mental health had got worse by not being able to go out and seeing their friends.
  • I think that the most difficult things experienced by children and young people during the COVID pandemic was loneliness, anxiety and disappointment.
  • I think that the pandemic has exacerbated the already poor mental health of young people and I believe that a large factor in this is the disruption which has been caused to exams due to the coronavirus. As a result of how the Government has handled examinations amidst the pandemic i.e. keeping students in the dark, young people have been filled with immense stress and confusion. A lot of this stress could have been avoided if our Government had better handled the situation regarding examinations.
  • I think the government need to stop blaming young people on the spread of coronavirus because we have all been affected by it and its affected people differently we are only kids it’s not fair.
  • I think the lack of meeting others and staying inside had caused severe mental and physical consequences. It would be normal for me not to leave my house for maybe a week at a time but now it would be normal for me not to leave the house for months. Mental health has had a serious decline as it has left me feeling worse after dealing with mental health problems for 7 years. I think as someone who is typically a huge introvert I can still say it has not affected me positively in the long run and has just left me feeling even more isolated from my friend groups and classes. I also consider people losing their jobs and money due to the pandemic and the effects that will have on families.
  • I think the mental health of young children needs to be taken into consideration. We often spend time talking about the things adults have lost and seem to forget the things our young people have lost. My outlet from the harsh reality of school was horse riding which I could not attend for 6 months and it is the same for others with sports such as GAA, dancing, football etc. Home school is often said to be easy and children are constantly reminded how they are not getting an education, when in fact I believe home school was far more stressful than normal school. All my outlets from school were gone, I felt overwhelmed and that I couldn’t escape it the way I used to. You can come home from school but during home schooling it was hard to differentiate between home and school.
  • I think the most difficult thing experienced by children and young people during the covid pandemic was the fact that not many had the opportunity to communicate and keep in touch with their friends or access Wifi.
  • I think the most difficult thing experienced by young people was the lack of guidance on examinations such as GCSE and A level predicted grades. From my own personal experience and through the many opinions of others I know including teachers and parents, things kept changing back and forth and caused a great deal of unnecessary further stress to students. I believe the government has certainly not done enough to fix these issues of lost education, and the stress and complications that has continued with students since the pandemic. There is no compensation for it, the only thing they’ve offered is extra-curricular activities such as summer schools and further education during the days, but many people like myself have no interest in spending their free time of summer focused on education, and having to deal with the aftermath of the government’s failure to provide effective guidance to young people and teachers on educational issues during the pandemic.
  • I think the most difficult thing in the pandemic has been doing schoolwork at home and online.
  • I think the most difficult thing is remote learning because you’re not actually in school so you not used to it.
  • I think the most difficult thing to young people is their mental health by being stuck in the house. A lot of young people have developed eating disorders of many kinds due to over exercise and under eating following trends, others may have started to over eat due to stress and I think this should be addressed more so they can get the help they need.
  • I think the most difficult thing was just not being able to do anything you want not even being able to see people you want to see I have lost touch with so much really close friends. The most important thing is that we are in our teenage years and my mum always told me that they will always be the best years of your life but not for us we have had to sit in our bedroom every day wishing we could see our friends, go to that concert maybe cause a bit of trouble as we should but no were going to have to look back at this as adults and realize how the pandemic ruined the best years of our lives. I think we should get repaid from this by making more things available that is fun for teenagers. Mental health is also a really big issue I lost a friend during pandemic to suicide and so many other teenagers have been effected by it mentally. I am thankful that i have been able to stay strong during it but I just mostly hate the way that the funniest years of my life are down the drain.
  • I think the most difficult thing was that young people and especially children were not able to socialize with grandparents, friends or teachers. There were multiple ways that the government could of went [could have done] to make this pandemic much easier and less emotionally draining for everyone.
  • I think the most difficult thing was when schools opened and then closed again, opened and closed, which made communication hard for children during lockdown as communication is important at that age. It was also hard for them to go outside and enjoy themselves with their friends.
  • I think the most difficult things were and still are the pressure off exams.
  • I think the pandemic has affected some children’s mental health as we have all been off school for a long period of time and were used to that type of lifestyle but then we had to go back to school and complete our exams straightaway.
  • I think the stress and worries on children from year 11 and up has been the worst as it your whole life consists on getting a job and having GCSE
  • I think the thing which was the most difficult thing is children or young people getting abused at home.
  • I think their mental health has been affected badly. But mine has not I have been happy and mentally strong during the lockdowns.
  • I think with parents who have died from the COVID19 virus.
  • I would say home conditions. This could vary [due] to relationships of people who live in the house that the young person doesn’t get along with and now has to stay in the same house as them, and children and young people learn in different ways and they have different attention spans which can be difficult for them to do work at the speed the teachers and government expect for them to do, which puts pressure on them and negatively affects their mental health.
  • I would say the most difficult things were coming back and doing exams I feel we didn’t get enough time to prepare.
  • I’d probably say younger people’s mental health has gotten worse over the lockdown period.
  • I think the most difficult things that were experienced by young people in the pandemic were the education aspects as a lot of student I know were worrying about their future and how the lockdown would effect it. I also think it had an effect on student’s metal health as well, with regards to anxiety and socialising again, which made easing into reality again more difficult for us. My grammar is very bad.
  • I’m not sure.
  • I’m not sure.
  • I’m not sure.
  • I’m not too sure.
  • I’m not too sure, but I’d say that quite a few people had experienced the loss of a family member due to corona which is the most horrible thing to have to go through as a child or young person. Other than that, some young people also had major difficulties with keeping up with their schoolwork through online classes and such, maybe because they didn’t have access to Wi-Fi, or couldn’t learn that way e.g. some children learn visually so they wouldn’t be affected as much, but people who learn through practical work or by listening to someone explaining the subject may have experienced difficulties during this time.
  • Immense amounts of stress over school work and exams. Constant uncertainty over GCSEs’
  • Impact on GCSE and A Level results, because of exams being cancelled. Missing out on sport, and moving on to the next step.
  • Impact on mental health.
  • Impact on mental health.
  • Impact on mental health.
  • In all honesty, the governments decisions have made me angry and frankly, pissed off. I am sure that many young people feel the same. The reason behind this is [in] education they couldn’t make a decision on what to do, one minute we were not meant to do our GCSEs, the next minute we were, then they changed their mind again. Their decision making is an absolute disgrace. My message to the government would be to make a decision and stick to it, to prevent young people becoming stressed and angry.
  • In and out of lock down felt very unorganised. Routine messed up
  • In my opinion, I think that most young people struggled with the pressure of going back to school and being clueless about the topics that were learned in remote learning.
  • In September of 2020 we are like test dummies for everyone else.
  • Increased pressure on their mental health.
  • Internet access and computers, lack of teaching during first lockdown, slow decision making re exams, having no control over our GCSE grades.
  • Internet access and speed in remote areas.
  • Internet problems.
  • Isolated from friends etc.
  • Isolation.
  • Isolation.
  • Isolation.
  • Isolation.
  • Isolation.
  • Isolation.
  • Isolation.
  • Isolation and lack of social activities. Also education has been severely interrupted
  • Isolation from friends and loved ones.
  • Isolation from friends and other family members, not as much physical activity and probably a major decline in mental and social health.
  • Isolation from their friends, lack of mental health care due to cuts in mental health funding, felt like we were the scapegoats used by the government when cases rose.
  • Isolation unable to meet up with friends.
  • Issues [due] to mental health and stresses of school.
  • It had taken a very negative turn socially for young people.
  • It took away our freedom.
  • It was difficult to socialise as we were so used to being with our friends almost every day which possibly affected most of our mental health
  • It was disheartening to see the government fail at protecting people and students financially, physically, mentally, etc. It felt as though money was being prioritised over human lives. Additionally, social issues like racism and climate change have gained a lot of attention throughout the pandemic and the government must continue to bring more awareness to these issues and support those affected by them.
  • It was hard to explain to people who went out every day they couldn’t see friends and had to stay in.
  • It wasn’t an even playing field for schoolwork. Many didn’t have the right environment to do school work but were held to the same standards as the people who did. We were told to email teachers about incomplete work but we don’t want to give details about our personal lives to them or feel invalidated when the excuse isn’t good enough. We are also given all the blame for the spread of covid and were presented in the media as the people who are killing grandparents and loved ones, even those of us who are following the guidelines.
  • It would have been better is different year groups would rotate to go into school and see friends at least once a week.
  • It’s affecting our mental health. Not being able to go outside that much or doing things we used to do and things being cancelled.
  • It’s hard to say mental health is probably the biggest factor as young children don’t understand what’s happening and why they can’t visit their friends and children may feel as if they are cut off from the rest of the world.
  • Just because we were at home does not mean we had all the time in the world to do as much school work as my teachers pleased. Nearly every child if not all ended up falling behind and eventually it ruined our emotional state.
  • Just the feeling of isolation.
  • Keeping contact with friends and up to date with school work.
  • Keeping distanced from your friends.
  • Keeping up to date with school and all of the stress of the exams being moved, then supposedly GCSEs cancelled, but we still had to do many tests which was extremely stressful.
  • Keeping up with school work and keeping the motivation of students to keep learning.
  • Kids being bored and not getting education.
  • Kids in poverty don’t have anything to entertain themselves. Hard to meet new people. Education and exams being cancelled is unfair and left everyone anxious.
  • Lack of  real education, not being able to experience actual exams having to do more assessments because there were no GCSE formal exams, being cut off from family and friends, the news reports caused me anxiety.
  • Lack of a school environment, people are less committed and educational potential isn’t as great.
  • Lack of a sense of achievement or end goal.
  • Lack of ability to involve themselves with social interaction.
  • Lack of clarity around when things will be opened.
  • Lack of clarity on exam results different way schools are awarded marks/grades.
  • Lack of communication from schools and lack of clear guidance from the education authorities regarding exams and school closures and returns were very stressful and detrimental and in my opinion were hard to cope with.
  • Lack of communication with schools and increased amount of homework.
  • Lack of contact and communication.
  • Lack of contact with friends and relatives, reduced social interaction. Fear over keeping vulnerable relatives safe. Lack of education face to face, the fear of feeling unprepared and now knowing that some of the courses have not been taught fully and so I could be at a disadvantage if I was to choose these subjects for A Level and or Further Education as I have not been fully taught the basics.
  • Lack of contact with friends through sports etc.
  • Lack of decision making skills by the government has made the pandemic way harder than it needed to be as we didn’t know what was happening regarding mocks or exams until last minute which was not helpful. Peter Weir made the school process much harder and made it a lot more stressful than necessary.
  • Lack of education. Lack of mental health support and understanding the impacts of coronavirus has had on pupils’ mental health. Lack of physical activity opportunities.
  • Lack of education my school used Google classroom but it wasn’t an effective way of learning.
  • Lack of education, some teachers doing less than others. How long sports were banned.
  • Lack of exercise.
  • Lack of exercise.
  • Lack of face to face learning. No Physical Activity.
  • Lack of face to face teaching.
  • Lack of face to face teaching, people should be encouraged to get outdoors. Possibly helping to fund bikes and home gym equipment. I think building and maintaining facilities is important and to make them easy to use.
  • Lack of face to face teaching, uncertainty regarding exams, stress of continual exams despite GCSEs being cancelled. Impact upon mental health. Absence of leisure such as sporting activities.
  • Lack of guidance at times, regarding restrictions and the lack of social contact some people have faced during lockdown, and the mental health impact this has.
  • Lack of mental health care and not being able to do certain hobbies etc.
  • Lack of mental health support for young people.
  • LACK OF MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.
  • Lack of nights out etc. to socialise with people you might not see. Adults can go to pubs but we have nowhere.
  • Lack of opportunities, development slowed, robbed of years.
  • Lack of physical activity.
  • Lack of physical health, addiction to technologies.
  • Lack of proper education.
  • Lack of proper education and prepping for exams.
  • Lack of resources which sometimes prevented participation in online schooling and also to communicate with others.
  • Lack of routine not socialising with others neglected children being abused.
  • Lack of school experiences, for example, socialising in classes, school trips, the formal and some afterschool activities. Also for exam pupils being told exams were cancelled, to then be replaced a few months later with more exams, which will not provide grades as accurately as usual exams would due to the lack of consistency with exam questions, amounts, conditions and dates between schools and even classes.
  • Lack of social activity outdoors for children and teenagers.
  • Lack of social contact which could lead to serious mental health issues in young people and a gap in academic results leading to unsatisfactory qualifications for university.
  • Lack of social interaction.
  • Lack of social interaction.
  • Lack of social interaction and education.
  • Lack of social interaction and missing out on education which have both negatively affected the mental health of many young people.
  • Lack of social interaction leading to losing friends impacting their mental health and going back to school to the GCSE exams being cancelled just for them to make us do more exams.
  • Lack of social interaction with peers.
  • Lack of social interaction with the rest of our generation not sure how the government could address that however.
  • Lack of social interaction. Missing out on education.
  • Lack of social interactions outside of their direct family.
  • Lack of social interactions with peers. Lack of exercises or leisure activities i.e. youth groups
  • Lack of social interactions with their family and friends and trying to teach themselves at home.
  • Lack of social life.
  • Lack of social life and now mental health has become so popular for our age group.
  • Lack of social life and our decreasing mental health.
  • Lack of social life, lack of mental [health] support.
  • Lack of social skills and communication.
  • Lack of socialisation.
  • Lack of socialising.
  • Lack of socialising.
  • Lack of socialising, loneliness.
  • Lack of socialising with friends and missing out on big events like birthdays.
  • Lack of sport activities.
  • Lack of Sport and Education.
  • Lack of sports.
  • Lack of sports and activities.
  • Lack of sports and hobbies.
  • Lack of sports and social activities.
  • Lack of sports i.ee football, Gaelic, not able to socialise.
  • Lack of sports, education and social interaction, bereavement, mental health
  • Lack of support from teachers.
  • Lack of support from teachers, the effect of social media on our mental health.
  • Lack of support in all areas of education.
  • Lack of teaching in classrooms.
  • Lack of teaching, exam pressure.
  • Lack of time in the classroom as well as far too many exams.
  • Lack of vaccines.
  • Large amount of school work.
  • Large number of exams. We were told all GCSEs and A Levels were to be cancelled but instead we had a large number of in school and CCEA resource exams to complete.
  • Large volumes of exams with short notice after it being confirmed that exams were cancelled, and having to undergo these every day for up to six weeks depending on school.
  • Larger families couldn’t see each other due to small bubbles.
  • Learning at home Google classroom.
  • Learning from home.
  • Learning GCSE material by themselves with a lack of help from some teachers.
  • Leisure time.
  • Less contact with family from different households and less contact with friends physical.
  • Less interaction with friends and family.
  • Less school pressure
  • Less social interactions and meeting up with friends indoors
  • Less social interactions and opportunities with others. This will greatly affect their future social abilities.
  • Learning remotely as it’s very difficult to understand stuff when Ur talking to the teachers over the computer and not face to face.
  • Little communication/interaction with friends and family leading to damaged mental health.
  • Lockdown restrictions on meeting with friends.
  • Lockdown.
  • Lockdown.
  • Lockdown and Mental Health struggles.
  • LONELIENESS.
  • Loneliness.
  • Loneliness.
  • Loneliness.
  • Loneliness.
  • Loneliness.
  • Loneliness.
  • Loneliness.
  • Loneliness in some children who couldn’t meet friends.
  • Loneliness Missing out on experiences.
  • Loneliness not meeting friends.
  • Loneliness.
  • Lose of experiences.
  • Losing a lot of education, students should have been put back a year
  • Losing a lot of our childhood and free time to restrictions and lockdowns and lack of communication to teachers and staff about school.
  • Losing our education,
  • Losing out on education,
  • Losing out on school time for people at the start of primary school as they missed out on necessary education for speech, spelling being able to read etc. teenagers like myself missed out on a lot of social activities and that’s a year we will never get back. People in hospital who are ill not being able to have visitors.
  • Loss of ability to hang out with friends.
  • Loss of childhood in general, decrease of mental health and being separated from loved ones and friends.
  • Loss of education and social interaction.
  • Loss of school time.
  • Loss of social contact and opportunities that can only be experienced through the short number of teenage years.
  • Loss of social life.
  • Loss of social life and education.
  • Loss of sport meant mental and physical health suffered.
  • LOSS TIME OF LEARNING.
  • Lots of young people have been struggling to get the grades they need for their GCSE results and are now suffering in school due to that.
  • Lying to u GCSE exams will not happen.
  • Mainly domestic abuse, children couldn’t escape it via school and instead had to live with it for months with no safe space. Also education has been severely damaged due to the disorganisation of the government and what they expected still expect schools to do.
  • Mainly I believe the way the government handled GCSEs and A levels badly as young people were just thrown into exams about a week after returning to school after the lockdown.
  • Maintaining good mental health and coping with the stress of exams
  • Many children in the UK were unable to get school computers for work due to a lack of government funding they have enough money as it is, it would be nice if some of it when into the educational departments during lockdown.
  • Many people had difficulties when the GCSE and A level exams were cancelled for the second time, because the current year 12 never had a proper exams in year11 or in year 12.
  • Many people struggled with mental health and were left alone to deal with it.
  • Many people’s mental and physical health was effected by lockdown. The main experience I think is a lack of connection with friends during lockdown.
  • Many schools expecting children to be able to teach themselves, especially grammar schools.
  • Many young people’s mental health was negatively affected by the pandemic. Many children are also worse off due to their parents being possibly let go and so they need more support.
  • Maybe try to not put pressure on teenagers on their education.
  • Meeting friends.
  • Meeting Friends and Family.
  • Meeting friends and not being able to go to my fitness groups.
  • Meeting friends face to face.
  • Meeting up with friends and less exercise.
  • Meeting up with other people and better Wi-Fi connections.
  • Mental and emotional health problems.
  • Mental and physical health. Nowadays mental and physical health are things young people struggle with anyway, never mind this pandemic which has kept young people from being emotionally healthy by missing friends etc., as well as physical health being affected by missing gym and exercise.
  • Mental and physical wellbeing.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental Health.
  • Mental Health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental Health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental Health.
  • Mental Health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental Health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental Health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental Health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental Health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental Health.
  • Mental health, drugs and alcohol.
  • Mental health and also how we lost out on most of our youth.
  • Mental health and body image, as you felt stuck by yourself, and had nothing to focus on, but yourself.
  • Mental health and decrease in grades.
  • Mental health and education.
  • Mental Health and Education.
  • Mental health and education..
  • Mental health and Exams.
  • Mental health and exams.
  • Mental health and family’s struggling to feed their kids.
  • Mental health and feeling unmotivated, development of mental illness.
  • Mental health and fitness.
  • Mental health and food habits.
  • Mental health and gaps in education.
  • Mental Health and GCSE gradings.
  • Mental health and grades.
  • Mental health and how GCSEs and A levels were handled.
  • Mental health and interaction with others.
  • Mental health and lack of socialisation.
  • Mental health and lockdown restrictions.
  • Mental health and loneliness.
  • Mental health and loneliness.
  • Mental health and missed education. I have missed a lot of GCSE work and therefore it will hinder my A Levels next year so there will need to be course reduction as we cannot regain the lost teaching time.
  • Mental health and not being able to go out and see their friends.
  • Mental health and not getting the support or response necessary for help.
  • Mental health and obesity.
  • Mental health and ongoing changes to marking exams which were never made clear.
  • Mental health and physical health problems as I was effected by depression and put weight n stuff on due to it so there’s a lot more but those would be the main factors.
  • Mental health and physical health. Not being able to socialize resulting in becoming distant from the world.
  • Mental health and re-entering society after isolation.
  • Mental health and school has been very affected.
  • Mental health and school work.
  • Mental health and seeing friends.
  • Mental health and social, as even simple things like an everyday conversation or physical touch seemed like a luxury during it and people struggled and felt lonely.
  • Mental health and some people staying with abusive people
  • Mental health and the education system. More importantly how stressful education can be for young people.
  • Mental health and the lack of education.
  • Mental Health and the stress of exams coming back into school.
  • Mental health and wellbeing.
  • Mental health and wellbeing.
  • Mental health and wellbeing.
  • Mental health and wellbeing extreme lack of guidance about schools and exams uncertainty.
  • Mental health as most people felt a lot more alone and were overthinking a lot more as they had more time on their own and didn’t have a proper schedule.
  • Mental health awareness.
  • Mental health being damaged due to over-testing and idiotic decisions relating to school by the education minister and the government.
  • Mental Health but for not just young people, I think like this should be spoken about far more and I’m very aware this topic is being talked about by many, but I believe the topic, especially men’s mental health should be brought to light. I believe it should be mentioned that it’s ok for men to show emotion or to be feeling down, that they shouldn’t have to put on a front as apparently men don’t cry and men are tough. I believe this all to be a bunch of bullshit. Sorry to curse there but the only word that would come to mind while mentioning this topic. Now I’m not saying women’s mental health shouldn’t be focused on as much, I’m saying that we should, well the government should focus on all genders, men, woman, non-binary etc. That mental health awareness should be equally divided between all genders and not so much focused on just one.
  • Mental health correlating to school during the covid period as families and teachers pressured students to complete work and seeing as there is more than one subject many teachers provided homework and assessments that had to be done by certain times which took a toll on the young people’s mental health as they had no time to themselves as they were always working.
  • Mental health crisis
  • Mental Health Crisis, being stuck inside with abusive carers or housemates and being isolated from friends or family outside the home, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, self-harm, overwhelming amount of schoolwork with no support from teachers or parents and no motivation to do it.
  • Mental health crisis, pressure for good grades, assessment overload.
  • Mental health decline.
  • Mental health decline, childhood obesity, lack of education and or resources.
  • Mental health, depression, anxiety.
  • Mental health deteriorated.
  • Mental health did not affect me personally but I knew many people in a very bad place due to the lockdown.
  • Mental health due to the stress of lockdown then coming back to assessments which is unfair. Also I feel like sports clubs should have been opened first along with hair dressers.
  • Mental health during lockdown.
  • Mental health during lockdown.
  • Mental health especially for people with ADHD, autism etc.
  • Mental health for children.
  • Mental health getting worse.
  • Mental health got to a lot of young ones and overthinking things, could’ve got more rules to see friends and go to school more.
  • Mental health has been affected for many teens. In online classes, some teachers were more irresponsible than others.
  • Mental health has been getting worse due to stress and anxiety about grades. Not having any job experience because we were took out of school. Not knowing how to sit an exam because we never got the chance or only did it once.
  • Mental health has been negatively affected, lack of the government caring about young people. The government promises something yet delivers something completely different resulting in young people constantly being unsure and on edge. I believe that the government themselves are a reasonable factor in why young people are struggling. Young people are used to constantly socialising and seeing friends and loved ones, meaning these lockdowns have hugely affected what was completely normal life. We didn’t know anything other than going to school 5 days a week and seeing friends, so all of sudden having that stop was a massive readjustment, and having support from the government that we felt was real and not just for show, would have made this transition incredibly easier.
  • Mental health has been quite bad for most teens especially since some teens were forced to stay in toxic environments and most teens had literally zero social interaction except from their family which was really difficult to deal with,
  • Mental health has been worse for many young people.
  • Mental health has suffered due to lack of support, too much work and too many harsh deadlines.
  • Mental health has suffered.
  • Mental health has worsened more and more every day, not being able to get out losing social skills and bad body image.
  • Mental health help when needed.
  • Mental health in regards to exams, workload.
  • Mental health in the second lockdown as you couldn’t go outside, you were unsure about when exams were happening and what was going on with school. It led to so much stress and anxiety that you didn’t know what to do anymore.
  • Mental health in young people.
  • Mental health is the first thing that comes to mind. Honestly, so many of my friends and my own mental health has plummeted during this pandemic.
  • Mental health issues.
  • Mental health issues.
  • Mental health issues.
  • Mental Health issues.
  • Mental health issues.
  • Mental health issues.
  • Mental Health Issues.
  • Mental health issues.
  • Mental health issues.
  • Mental health issues.
  • Mental health issues.
  • Mental health issues.
  • Mental health issues.
  • Mental health issues.
  • Mental health issues. There’s been a deterioration especially among most of the older children, e.g. teens and upwards [than] for younger children. Perhaps the schools should be more accommodating, reassure them, and inform them of our current pandemic. The children should be made to feel included, especially since being off school for so long is harsh.
  • Mental health issues among young people and being blamed for not completing work I was struggling with during lockdown.
  • Mental Health Issues and awareness of social issues in the world for example, students lacking education on happenings in society, such as the Black Lives Matter Movement etc.
  • Mental health issues and being blamed for any rising infection rate.
  • Mental health issues and being unable to receive treatment or help for them.
  • Mental health issues and how we dealt with the pandemic.
  • Mental health issues due to restrictions and not being able to socialise in person outside of a school environment.
  • Mental health issues especially social anxiety and eating disorders.
  • Mental health issues for people who have no contact with friends , Children living in strict households not being allowed to speak to other friends
  • Mental health issues have gotten increasingly worse as people sitting exams weren’t being taught properly by teachers and couldn’t study properly also working at home is difficult when your family is in.
  • Mental health issues lack of help through healthcare professions.
  • Mental health issues loneliness.
  • Mental health issues need to be addressed more by the Government.
  • Mental health issues such as anxiety and panic attacks. Exams assessments still going ahead.
  • Mental health issues such as depression and anxiety brought on by loneliness and separation. Also the stress caused by the indecisiveness and lack of clarity on the part of the government throughout the pandemic should be answered for.
  • Mental health issues, children and young people need a social life and many need this to be physical, this could not be achieved due to, very needed, restrictions. Many rely on time spent with friends to be themselves and maintain happiness and security in relationships with said friends, many may have sick family they couldn’t visit etc.
  • Mental health issues, feelings of loneliness and anxiousness.
  • Mental health issues, feelings of loneliness and isolation, worries about the future, lack of social interactions and increased screen time.
  • Mental health issues, not being able to meet friends, fear of the unknown.
  • Mental health issues, some of my friends experienced them over lockdown
  • Mental health issues.
  • Mental health it’s been a struggle with all the school work and being stuck in the house.
  • Mental health negatively impacted from stress about school and what will happen for GCSE and A level students.
  • Mental health no social contact with close ones.
  • Mental health not being able to socialise.
  • Mental health not being used to staying indoors.
  • Mental health of everyone and helping people understand that it isn’t something to be ashamed of it is ok to talk. The fact that young people have missed so much school and therefore should be considered in the coming year.
  • Mental health of people with pre-existing disorders or conditions.
  • Mental health of young people and the education that the young people have lost during this period of lockdown.
  • Mental health of younger people has been affected greatly and many people such as myself haven’t been able to fully experience their teenage years like being able to go out with friends.
  • Mental health overall, disruption of education, difficulty socialising.
  • Mental health problems.
  • Mental health problems.
  • Mental health problems and lack of motivation.
  • Mental health problems from not seeing friends and family.
  • Mental health problems, so many other teenagers developed or got worse in terms of their mental health and nothing is ever really done about it in schools or in society.
  • Mental health problems, such as eating disorders, depression, anxiety etc.
  • Mental health problems.
  • Mental health regarding education and exams.
  • Mental Health School work and pressure.
  • Mental health services need to be improved, the waiting lists are too long and the help isn’t up to standard. Education in schools has been worse off as due to formal exams being cancelled there is no fair way to give GCSE and A level grades.
  • Mental health should be talked about more for people struggling and the amount of work given was too much and it was difficult to learn without a teacher.
  • Mental health struggles.
  • Mental health struggles, exam pressures in school and a rise in toxic misogynistic, racist, homophobic etc. views from white teenage males.
  • Mental health support.
  • Mental health support, academic support.
  • Mental health there should be something that children can do as we were just locked inside with nothing but our thoughts.
  • Mental health was impacted.
  • Mental health wellbeing.
  • Mental health, active learning, physical health.
  • Mental health, all the beds in mental health hospitals are completely filled, some children are being sent to adult mental health hospitals because if this, we need more child and adolescent mental health hospitals or an expansion to the one we have.
  • Mental health, as young people weren’t allowed to meet their friends and socialise during these tough times.
  • Mental health, being thrown in the deep end with exams as soon as we come back into school.
  • Mental health, depression, suicide, unable to get school work done from home, loneliness.
  • Mental health, domestic violence as statistics show it has greatly risen.
  • Mental health, exams. Constantly being lied to by the government, exams are cancelled yet we are sitting three times the normal amount we would be, mental health of teens has been devastated.
  • Mental Health, Fitness, Leisure.
  • Mental health, increase of funding and awareness for youth mental health services and CAMHS.
  • Mental Health, Isolation, Work Pressure.
  • Mental health, lack of communication and loss of activities outside school that brought them together.
  • Mental health, lack of exercise.
  • Mental health, lack of interaction with other people.
  • Mental health, lack of resources, how the government has given little support to those who need it students, uni students, underprivileged people.
  • Mental health, lockdown has been increasing anxiety and depression and even coming out of lockdown can be anxiety inducing. High levels of stress with school work and the cancelling of exams last minute then replacing them with even more term assessments. Uncertainty regarding grades and further education. Lack of face to face teaching could also badly affect future jobs and careers.
  • Mental health, not being able to meet friends or family.
  • Mental health, not seeing friends and family.
  • Mental Health, Not understanding why they can’t see their family or friends. Education, not having the same face to face learning, having lots of deadlines, getting confused on questions. Physical Health people have gained or lost loads of weight.
  • Mental health, physical health, and the fact that our education has suffered greatly.
  • Mental health, riots and domestic abuse at home and isolation not only because if they had coronavirus but not being able to see their friends etc.
  • Mental health, school stress and pressure.
  • Mental health, social anxiety or social nervousness as an aftermath caused by lockdown.
  • Mental health, suicide rates went up a lot during the pandemic. I personally lost someone I know and it’s hard to get through, the government doesn’t do enough to help the young people and the men enough with suicide, these are the people it affects the most. Yes it also affects women but it is high in men and younger people
  • Mental health, the future.
  • Mental health, unrealistic expectations put onto students.
  • Mental health, as we have been kept inside for so long like a prison.
  • Mental health, wearing masks.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental Health.
  • Mental health.
  • Mental health. Especially with the amount of work that has been handed to us all at once with our GCSEs. I was told a week in advance that I would have exams that would be carried out over 4 weeks which is short notice for exams that could determine our grades. Everyone that I know, including myself have been extremely stressed over this period just after being assured exams would not go ahead months before. I feel that the government should have put more thought into the plan for GCSE students, many of which were already negatively impacted mentally by the pandemic and disruption in our lives. After this, I am unsure of how the government is going to help young people with their mental wellbeing.
  • Mental health. I personally struggled to deal with the online learning, the reduction in my physical activity and the consistency of feeling alone. Getting to go back to school was great. I loved seeing all my friends and teachers again and being able to learn in an active environment, but then suddenly we were bombarded with stresses of exams, especially going to a grammar school and needing to compete with other in my school for grades whilst being held up to the same expectations by teachers and parents of other past pupils who had a full 2 years of teachings while most of the time I had to sit and teach myself added extra stress to the reality of doing exams.
  • Mental health. So many children had been severely affected by the pandemic in a negative light. I lost my Granny in March 2020 which set a negative outlook on the rest of my year, but I am aware so many other people I know have developed serious mental health issues over the course of the last year that has very briefly been addressed by the government and schools but not in enough depth and light that it can help those affected, for example, eating disorder, depression, and worsened anxiety.
  • Mental health. Stress of exams being cancelled.
  • Mental health, schooling and exams, lack of support
  • Mental health. Sports resources
  • Mental Health issues as haven’t experience seeing people and lack of school
  • Mental health related issues.
  • Mental health, school work.
  • Mental health and education.
  • Mental Ill health and suicide rates greatly increasing.
  • Mental illness should be addressed, via more funding as waiting times are unrealistic.
  • Mental state and wellbeing and how there is help there. This should be pushed more by the government as it is mostly just private associations or charity that do so.
  • Mental wellbeing
  • Mental wellbeing. The examination process
  • Metal health.
  • Metal health deterioration due to the pressures of school, having to stay inside, being isolated from your friends and stress or conflict inflicted by family members. A lot of these issues aren’t taken into consideration or haven’t been considered when coming up with assessments for students like myself.
  • Mental health issues.
  • Mental health issues.
  • Misinformation about important exams and a disadvantage to our education.
  • Missed education.
  • Missed education and post 16 opportunities for students.
  • Missed friends and not doing school work in school.
  • Missed out in a lot of their education and affected their social skills.
  • Missed term time that needs to be caught up on.
  • Missing face to face teaching by teachers in school.
  • Missing friends and learning.
  • Missing friends, stressed with massive amounts of work dumped on our head with minimal help. Loneliness etc.
  • Missing important things because of lockdown.
  • Missing massive chunks out of our education and then being told that we had a whole series of exams despite not having been taught for months, face to face.
  • Missing out on a part of our lives that we will never get back, and our school life was affected greatly due to the fact many older children were trying to teach themselves.
  • Missing out on education and not being able to sit exams.
  • Missing out on education, some children may get abused at home and school is there only safe place.
  • Missing out on exams
  • Missing out on key points of their childhood
  • Missing out on loads of content for GCSE and A level exams was very difficult and we had to teach ourselves most of it. Having exams to predict these grades was a very stressful time as we were told by Peter Weir in January we would NOT be having exams at all. We also had very little time to prepare. For younger people in KS3, missing out in their first few years of school was very hard as it was a totally new environment for them and they were just settling in before 2 lockdowns came upon us. They also missed out on important work to fuel them for their GCSEs and A levels. I also think, children’s mental health has been greatly affected by the covid pandemic.
  • Missing out on our social life.
  • Missing out on physical activity.
  • Missing out on so much school and being able to have a social life.
  • Missing out on social life.
  • Missing out on social opportunities.
  • Missing out on socialising at a young age.
  • Missing out on sport, especially football.
  • Missing out on the two most important years of school.
  • Missing out on the usual teenage experiences that all other generations got to experience e.g. formal, last days even GCSEs. We’ve given up our teenage years while still being blamed for the spread of COVID by the government.
  • Missing out on their social life, for example, Going out with friends and the work they had missed out on during the COVID pandemic.
  • Missing out on time with friends, specifically summer time.
  • Missing out on your teenager years.
  • Missing their education and their friends.
  • Missing time in school. Not getting to see family and friends frequently.
  • Mixing with our friends and chatting with our friends same thing every day.
  • More financial support for mental health issues.
  • More free school meals offered to children in need.
  • More guidelines on how education should be delivered online. Some teachers chose not to have any live or pre-recorded lessons and it made learning very difficult.
  • More help and recognition of mental health issues in young people.
  • More help in school.
  • More info for children only.
  • More information and quicker response for them.
  • More support for our mental health.
  • More work, finding things out the night before they happened, e.g. whether or not we were going back in, and being told we technically have exams but them not being called exams. The announcement of exams was also pretty sudden.
  • Motivation to do work.
  • Motivation to keep on top of school work, also the stress on GCSE and A level students who weren’t clearly told the plans for their exam results, and now there are far too many assessments in a short period of time.
  • My friends have been getting a lot more work than they normally would and they have to do it at home which adds more pressure.
  • My getting the right quality of education and struggling with mental health.
  • Nearly no social interaction, which affected the physical and mental state of many going back to places such as school etc.
  • Negative effects on their mental health and abusive households.
  • Negatively impacted mental health, opportunities to socialise and reconnect with friends, missed learning opportunities and recreational activities in schools e.g. School clubs and formals.
  • No going to school contact with classmates.
  • No being able to go out anywhere to lift our minds from daily life and every day felt the same.
  • No being able to have free time with their friends outside of school.
  • No being able to play their sports
  • No football or other sport teams training or matches due to covid yet we go to school.
  • No freedom to go out with friends and lack of learning at school.
  • No gym.
  • No gym.
  • No idea.
  • No meeting up indoors
  • No one gets to see their mates or their family.
  • No one really told us about what was happening with our exams until they were announced that they were cancelled however then we still had to do big exams for all subjects after Easter that were going towards our GCSEs which caused a lot of stress. It also got quite lonely for a while because of not being able to see friends.
  • No school.
  • No school and hobbies.
  • No school.
  • No social events.
  • No social interaction.
  • No social interaction has been hard for young people.
  • No social interaction, changing of rules and connectivity issues.
  • No socialisation.
  • No sport
  • Nowhere to socialise nothing to look forward to everything being cancelled.
  • Non applicable.
  • None.
  • Not normal teenage years.
  • Not able to go out to places like the cinema after a stressful week. There’s no time to relax.
  • Not able to meet with friends during lockdown.
  • Not all young people are confident or comfortable discussing their mental health and wellbeing. Even though there are charities dedicated to helping, their approach may not be effective.
  • Not allowed to meet friends.
  • Not allowed to meet friends and have nights out together.
  • Not allowing a certain amount in a group and no sleepovers at friend’s house.
  • NOT ALLOWED OUT.
  • Not being able to go out and socialize and is effecting mental health.
  • Not been able to get proper education.
  • Not been able to meet friends.
  • Not been able to physically see friends.
  • Not been able to socialise.
  • Not being able to actually meet up with others and chat I think, even personally, that levels of communication have decreased. Also with schoolwork I know a lot of people did not do any work at times and have still not caught up which has now affected their time at school.
  • Not being able to attend school.
  • Not being able to attend sport and socialise with other people outside your own bubble.
  • Not being able to attend youth facilities.
  • Not being able to be around people, even when it is known that nobody present is infected or has been around anyone who is or was. Not being able to gather in small groups, but still needing to go to school with hundreds of others, making the regulations rather contradictory in this regard.
  • Not being able to be in a classroom and fully be able to learn the best possible way.
  • Not being able to be in contact with friends.
  • Not being able to be meet friends.
  • Not being able to be social.
  • Not being able to be social enough has been frustrating as I’d like to see my friends and also play sports as much as possible.
  • Not being able to do stuff we usually did.
  • Not being able to do the activities they love to do.
  • Not being able to enjoy outdoor activities such as sports or socialising.
  • Not being able to enjoy the weather and go to places to enjoy. Masks making my skin worse. Our flights that we booked to Canada in the summer last year being cancelled and not getting money back. Not being able to go to India. Our school assessments being much longer than GCSEs should have been and all decisions being made by the education minister being constantly changed putting us into so much stress as it was never ever good news. He always changed our situation according to what he wanted not what was better or beneficial to us students.
  • Not being able to fully interact with people they’re close to.
  • Not being able to get out of a confined space and having ASD and ADHD and suicidal thoughts stuck at home was very hard.
  • Not being able to go out.
  • Not being able to go out.
  • Not being able to go out.
  • Not being able to go out.
  • Not being able to go out and exercise as much.
  • Not being able to go out and freely do things. Some of us have missed out on key milestones and it’s all because of lockdown which has be spent pretty much locked in which can affect people’s mental health.
  • Not being able to go out and see people.
  • Not being able to go out and see people their own age.
  • Not being able to go out and socialise.
  • Not being able to go out and socialise.
  • Not being able to go out and socialise in groups.
  • Not being able to go out and socialise with their friends.
  • Not being able to go out and socialise, as well as the pressure school put on the students to work with the excessive workload.
  • Not being able to go out and spend time with their friends or family.
  • Not being able to go out anywhere with friends and family and missing out on going to school every day.
  • Not being able to go out with friends and seeing family.
  • Not being able to go out with friends or to talk to someone in person without having to wear a mask.
  • Not being able to go out with their friends.
  • Not being able to go outdoors with friends and get the attention you need from teachers, some kids found it hard to work alone as they didn’t have the type of parents that would help them with school work/education.
  • Not being able to go outside and enjoy their childhood and also affecting their learning at school.
  • Not being able to go outside and meet up with friends.
  • Not being able to go outside and play the sport they love with their friends.
  • Not being able to go see ur friends.
  • Not being able to go to certain places.
  • Not being able to go to school no social activities missing out on main events being cancelled.
  • Not being able to go to see friends.
  • Not being able to go to shops because they were all closed.
  • Not being able to go with your friends.
  • Not being able to have a social life.
  • Not being able to have a social life.
  • Not being able to have much needed social time with a big group of people.
  • Not being able to have social interactions and go on holidays.
  • Not being able to hug grandparents and seeing friends.
  • Not being able to interact with friends.
  • Not being able to interact with friends or live their teenage years.
  • Not being able to learn as well, some homes are abusive and school helps the individual to escape, losing out on interacting with friends.
  • Not being able to learn in school.
  • Not being able to leave house.
  • Not being able to live our teenage years.
  • Not being able to meet family and friends, long queues for shops and delays for post.
  • Not being able to meet friends, lack of educational support, as well as locking the country down.
  • Not being able to meet friends, not being able to go anywhere, the first lockdown was worse because we were not allowed to go to the beach or the park. I wasnt able to go to school but I managed my studying at home, our internet is very bad so sometimes I couldn’t do zoom classes. I couldn’t go to my job so I had no money. I couldn’t visit my sister in Liverpool she is a nursing student.
  • Not being able to meet up with each other during covid19 lockdown and isolate from work or school if positive after covid test.
  • Not being able to meet up with friends and go on holidays.
  • Not being able to meet up with friends, I can’t go to my favourite kebab shop and the gym is closed.
  • Not being able to meet up with friends, or go to cafes, play sports
  • Not being able to meet with friends. I feel as if we were always put last and we will have to pick up the pieces in future to fix the economy. Our mental wellbeing is destroyed and no one is acknowledging it.
  • Not being able to meet with friends and being stuck inside the house for a long time.
  • Not being able to meet with friends in person.
  • Not being able to participate in sport and also mental health.
  • Not being able to play all sports again, not being able to go out in groups of people had been hard.
  • Not being able to play competitive sports.
  • Not being able to play sports.
  • Not being able to properly socialise with friends and family.
  • Not being able to see and spent time with their friends, family. Also some teenagers their mental health got worse because they couldn’t leave home.
  • Not being able to see as much loved ones and friends and shops, swimmers etc. being closed.
  • Not being able to see family members.
  • Not being able to see family or friends and have no access to the internet.
  • Not being able to see friends.
  • Not being able to see friends.
  • Not being able to see friends.
  • Not being able to see friends.
  • Not being able to see friends.
  • Not being able to see friends.
  • Not being able to see friends.
  • Not being able to see friends.
  • Not being able to see friends.
  • Not being able to see friends.
  • Not being able to see friends.
  • Not being able to see friends and burn off energy.
  • Not being able to see friends and extended family members outside of school.
  • Not being able to see friends and family.
  • Not being able to see friends and family.
  • Not being able to see friends and family as often.
  • Not being able to see friends and family has been tough due to the pandemic.
  • Not being able to see friends and family members, and struggling to keep motivated with online learning.
  • Not being able to see friends and take part in activities, the coronavirus had a negative impact on our education.
  • Not being able to see friends as much.
  • Not being able to see friends face to face.
  • Not being able to see friends face to face.
  • Not being able to see friends face to face.
  • Not being able to see friends in person.
  • Not being able to see friends in person.
  • Not being able to see friends living far away.
  • Not being able to see friends or family.
  • Not being able to see friends or family.
  • Not being able to see friends or get out.
  • Not being able to see friends or go places.
  • Not being able to see friends or go to indoor activities - gym.
  • Not being able to see friends or have a normal childhood.
  • Not being able to see friends or having better learning in school.
  • Not being able to see friends or older family.
  • Not being able to see friends which affects our mental health.
  • Not being able to see friends, confidence levels, mental health.
  • Not being able to see friends, having loads of work given from school and it has been hard to get to do our outside school activities.
  • Not being able to see grandparents.
  • Not being able to see grandparents and finding it hard to complete schoolwork online.
  • Not being able to see loved ones.
  • Not being able to see mates, everything being shut down.
  • Not being able to see my friends.
  • Not being able to see or meet with friends over lockdown..
  • Not being able to see others has been quite terrible, lack of social and extracurricular activities were kind of  boring also having to worry at the beginning of lockdown since my dad is diabetic and both my parents are kinda old so they’d be at a higher risk.
  • Not being able to see our friends could have mentally drained us as we cannot see or talk to them personally in person and we were only able to speak to each other. We were only able to talk virtually without seeing each other, which felt weird at the start but later, you would get used to it.
  • Not being able to see their friends.
  • Not being able to see their friends.
  • Not being able to see their friends.
  • Not being able to see their friends and go out in public to do things like going shopping and to the cinema. Due to this, a lot of children and young people have felt lonely and isolated from everyone else, which has negatively affected their mental health. The situation with the replacement of GCSEs with teacher assessments has also been a problem, as it has put a lot of stress on students, as many have struggled to catch up with the teaching they missed during the two lockdowns.
  • Not being able to see their friends in real life.
  • Not being able to see their friends that they would have seen in school.
  • Not being able to see their friends. Also their mental health declining overall.
  • Not being able to see their family members that don’t live with them.
  • Not being able to see your friends but I mean I grinded mxs so it was all good.
  • Not being able to socialise.
  • Not being able to socialise.
  • Not being able to socialise.
  • Not being able to socialise.
  • Not being able to socialise.
  • Not being able to socialise.
  • Not being able to socialise.
  • Not being able to socialise and education being disrupted has put everyone at an academic disadvantage.
  • Not being able to socialise and learn new things as usual.
  • Not being able to socialise and play sport.
  • Not being able to socialise and see our friends every day
  • Not being able to socialise and the amount of schoolwork which was unnecessary.
  • Not being able to socialise education has been hugely …
  • Not being able to socialise. Increase in anxiety and anti-social behaviour. Workload from school and tests.
  • Not being able to socialise outside of school.
  • Not being able to socialise properly.
  • Not being able to socialise the same ways.
  • Not being able to socialise with friend other than family.
  • Not being able to socialise with friends and family.
  • Not being able to socialise with friends and have sports to play which is essential for young people to be able to relieve their stress of school.
  • Not being able to socialise with friends and live our teenage years to the fullest.
  • Not being able to socialise with friends and other people. Exams have been handle badly.
  • Not being able to socialise with friends normally, and lacking a normal teenage social life.
  • Not being able to socialise with friends or normal experiences lost because of the pandemic.
  • Not being able to socialise with friends. Ensuring everyone has good access to the best possible quality of education, especially when at home.
  • Not being able to socialise with others in our young age.
  • Not being able to socialise with their friends.
  • Not being able to socialise.
  • Not being able to socialize as much with friends [as] before the pandemic. And how some have felt mentally isolated.
  • Not being able to socialize outside of school in nightclubs or discos, mental health due to stress in school, not being able to celebrate big milestones with loved ones or friends and family, and not being able to have physical contact with loved ones.
  • Not being able to socialize physically with friends.
  • Not being able to socialize with people.
  • Not being able to socialize with their friends and other young people.
  • Not being able to socialise with friends from school.
  • Not being able to speak to friends or get out of the house and socialise.
  • Not being able to talk or see your friends.
  • Not being able to visit family and friends.
  • Not being allowed out and parties.
  • Not being allowed out to see friends.
  • Not being allowed to go see friends or family. Many people would have felt more lonely.
  • Not being allowed to meet with friends.
  • Not being allowed to play sport for their teams.
  • Not being allowed to see people.
  • Not being allowed to socialise.
  • Not being allowed to socialise with friends and other family members that are outside of your bubble.
  • Not being educated in a classroom, nearly missing out on a whole year worth of face to face teaching.
  • Not being given the correct or amount of substantial information that was not conflicting from members of the government.
  • Not being in school for face to face teaching and not seeing friends.
  • Not being recognised or appreciated enough for what we have gone through and not asking us what we think. Also, mental health has gotten worse and needs more than just an assembly. Instead of assuming what you think is best, you need to actually ask us, for example with one of these surveys.
  • Not being [able] to go out and see family and friends or get a break by shopping or doing activities.
  • Not being [able] to socialise with friends.
  • Not enough football pitches.
  • Not enough outside activities social meeting points available.
  • Not enough social interaction.
  • Not enough social interaction for younger children and having worse mental health.
  • Not enough support, can easily not participate and many don’t appreciate how hard online learning is.
  • Not every child has access to internet or their internet is not fast enough.
  • Not gathering and being exposed to each other. Mandatory and not voluntary halting of social gatherings and closing of nonessential businesses. Restrictions in essential businesses.
  • Not getting enough support from school and the pressure of sudden exams we didn’t get told about while off. Also to retrain counsellors better than them getting paid to say that’s’ a bit of a mystery.
  • Not getting enough time to revise for the assessments which are our GCSEs.
  • Not getting nights out.
  • Not getting out with friends.
  • Not getting the face to face teaching or seeing my friends.
  • Not getting the right help with school if confused about it.
  • Not getting to interact with others.
  • Not getting to live their full school life and experience their full school year.
  • Not getting to see friends and talk to people.
  • Not getting to see friends or family.
  • Not getting to see their friends.
  • Not getting to sit our GCSEs and failing them based off predicted grade when we should all at least get a pass.
  • Not getting to socialise.
  • Not getting to socialise with friends and family outside of their homes.
  • Not getting to sports or out to see my friends properly.
  • Not going out.
  • Not going to school.
  • Not having a new club opened, not having social life, not seeing friends and family.
  • Not having a lot of people to talk to in their home, and not being able to access online schooling and education.
  • Not having a social life.
  • Not having access to a computer or internet.
  • Not having any social interaction apart from online which has severely affected all of us negatively. An example of this is an increase in mental health issues depression, anxiety etc. I also think that the uncertainty about our future has made us more anxious.
  • Not having enough time to catch up on school work for exams.
  • Mot having face to face learning, not being able to properly socialise as normal
  • Not having face to face teaching
  • Not having fundamental tasks to do for example  attending school
  • Not having sports clubs or PE in school has reduced activity and increased weight gain. Children and young people are often the people who experience the most difficulties when it comes to socialising and the lack thereof has made it worse. Those who started a new school during the pandemic most likely have found it harder to make friends if they keep having classes online or if they are in school have no after school clubs to meet people with similar interests. School for those with important exams e.g. GCSEs have had a harder academic year than they should have but are still worried there grade may not be seen as valid to others.
  • Not interacting with others.
  • Not knowing what was happening.
  • Not knowing what was happening and information regarding exams kept changing.
  • Not knowing what was happening with exams and being given no real plan of action.
  • Not knowing what was happening with exams until very late on was confusing.
  • Not knowing what was really happening and what was next in terms of education.
  • Not knowing when or how my grades were being determined.
  • Not learning in a classroom environment and not being with friends.
  • Not meeting friends.
  • Not meeting their friends in person and not being able to go places.
  • Not really sure.
  • Not really sure if there’s anything the government needs to address.
  • Not really sure.
  • Not seeing all my friends because they would have to shield.
  • Not seeing anyone physically. Mental health. Not going as much to get fresh air.
  • Not seeing elders.
  • Not seeing family.
  • Not seeing family like grandparents or seeing friends.
  • Not seeing family members outside household bubble.
  • Not seeing friends.
  • Not seeing friends.
  • Not seeing friends.
  • Not seeing friends.
  • Not seeing friends and family.
  • Not seeing friends and being non-social.
  • Not seeing friends and being stuck at home.
  • Not seeing friends and family.
  • Not seeing friends and family and missing out on social life.
  • Not seeing friends and no school.
  • Not seeing friends and school stress.
  • Not seeing friends and socialising.
  • Not seeing friends forgetting how to socialise.
  • Not seeing friends or family.
  • Not seeing my friends.
  • Not seeing my friends or extended family.
  • Not seeing other people for so long and developing social anxiety.
  • Not seeing our friends and enjoying our time, missing out on sports, losing the enjoyment of our crucial teenage years.
  • Not seeing people.
  • Not seeing people was the worst but there is nothing they can do about it.
  • Not seeing their friends.
  • Not seeing your friends and extended family.
  • Not seeing your mates.
  • Not socialising.
  • Not socialising.
  • Not sure.
  • Not sure.
  • Not sure.
  • Not sure.
  • Not sure.
  • Not to be able to have contact with other young people and teachers.
  • Nothing.
  • Nothing.
  • Nothing.
  • Nothing.
  • Nothing.
  • Nothing being open.
  • Nothing serious. There are bigger problems. If I was to choose one, mental health and anxiety.
  • Nothing to do
  • Nothing, the government should stay out of people’s lives as much as possible.
  • Now that I don’t know I hardly talked to my friends in lockdown but that’s because they know I won’t respond back to their messages bc I either was on my PlayStation, reading and listening to music or just watching YouTube or just forgot to even text back.
  • One of the most difficult things during the COVID pandemic was the worsening of mental health of young people, and then having to go back to school and be expected/pressured to do everything perfectly.
  • Online classes were not good and had no motivation to do anything and when asked a question teacher took ages to reply.
  • Online learning.
  • Online learning does not suit all students and can impact negatively on their self-esteem and learning.
  • Online learning from home and taking part in live lessons.
  • Online learning personally I struggled with especially it being my GCSE year.
  • Online learning was difficult because there wasn’t a teacher to help you.
  • Online learning, not seeing friends, worrying about the future, feel alone to some degree.
  • Online learning.
  • Online school
  • Online school
  • Online School
  • Online school is difficult enough without having to teach yourself the entire course as the teacher is not physically able to see the problems, they cannot help either. So a new form of online school could be made or different solutions.
  • Online schoolwork.
  • Online teaching, not seeing people.
  • Online workload.
  • Opened all the schools sooner so we could see people.
  • Other children could be in abusive households and I worried about school a lot.
  • Our education and mental health.
  • Our education and mental health and childhood e.g. being with friends.
  • Our education had suffered quite a bit. Arrangements changed so often and we were all quite confused and being at home did not lessen the workload or stress, contrary to what some people like to say. It was harder to create a worklife balance and sometimes material can be difficult to learn and understand when not in an in-person class, although most teacher try their best with resources and class calls.
  • Our education has been effected drastically and the government has failed to provide support and reassurance as they have gone back on countless decisions they made. This broke trust and respect I had for the government as they clearly didn’t have a clue what they were doing. All their decisions seemed last minute and they very much kept the people in the dark which allowed people to build things up in their head.   One of the situations that affected me is when the Peter Weir said we are definitely doing exams then changed his mind less than a week before my English and Maths GCSE. I have now had to sit over 4 exams for each subject. This has added so much stress to my life. This has been the worst year of my life. I also struggled greatly with my mental health, as did my peers. Being kept in the house for such long periods of time made me feel alienated from my community. This eventually resulted in me having social anxiety when we were allowed to go out which has put a gigantic strain on my relationships. By sitting inside all day by myself as my parents work for the [essential workers] bar my one walk a day allowed me to have a lot of time to think. I was on social media for a large percentage of the day. This meant I was exposed to influencers’ perfect images, bodies and life. This made me feel like I was abnormal by feeling down and not being able to cope with lockdown. I compared my life/body to these people. This resulted in me going long periods without eating which made me lose 2.5 stone. As I was so tired and feeling utterly disgusted with how I looked I stopped all contact with my friends and isolated myself. This allowed these feelings to fester in my mind and grow.  The government don’t understand the severity of the situation on teenagers’ mental health. I don’t know how I am going to recover from this.
  • Our education has been the most difficult thing that teenagers studying for their GCSEs or A Levels have had to deal with, because the way we were and are still being tested is confusing, and if I may say so stupid. The end of year exams were cancelled, but the numerous tests for evidence proved to be even more strenuous than the original exams. The whole ordeal was and still is confusing, and makes absolutely no sense to me.
  • Our GCSE grades depending on one exam we had barely any class time to help with.
  • Our grades we will be getting. The confusion of having exams cancelled but being made to do exams in the end up.
  • Our learning has been affected in a negative way.
  • Our mental health.
  • Our mental health and how we can’t cope during the harsh lockdowns.
  • Our mental health has seriously declined, the teenage suicide rate was higher than ever before is evidence of this, I also noticed that my mental health also declined during this pandemic.
  • Our mental health is suffering as it is harder to see loved ones or to go out with friends. Some have difficulty doing school work at home for various reasons.
  • Our mental health, not everyone feels safe enough to speak up about it.
  • Our social life and how it has been negatively affected.
  • Outdoor sports activities gyms not being open.
  • Overbearing amount of work and tests which is very stressful during this already stressful time.
  • Overwhelming amounts of schoolwork and having very limited places to go apart from home.
  • Parents losing jobs
  • Parents or guardians losing jobs due to COVID19, leading to their family not being financially stable. The food packages sent out by government were a complete joke, there wasn’t enough food to last a week.
  • People are informed and no mixed messages from Government
  • People who have it worse with finance mightn’t be able to afford devices e.g. phones, Ipads, Tablets and laptops. This could negatively affect young people’s social skills by preventing them meeting people and not talking with friends in months.
  • People’s access to the resources that were required for online education, for example, a computer, needs to be addressed further. The mental health of the people affected needs to be a priority.
  • Physical activities, dietary health and motivation.
  • Physical and emotional abuse and mental health problems mostly with teenagers.
  • Physical and mental health.
  • Physical and mental health. People who are uncomfortable speaking out and asking for help often need it the most.
  • Physical health.
  • Physical Health as sport was cancelled even though it was an outdoor activity.
  • Physical health
  • Poor exam schedules and management, more transparency overall should have been given.
  • Poor mental health.
  • Poor mental health due to lack of physical contact and lack of mental health support.
  • Possible being stuck in toxic households and not being able to go to school or out anywhere to get away from it.
  • Poverty some parents not able to afford the equipment or internet their child needed to learn.
  • Predominantly Mental Health and Safety Guidelines.
  • Preparation for exams and the inconsistency of not being clear regarding exams.
  • Pressure due to online learning difficulties and exams.
  • Pressure from education. Increased mental health issues.
  • Pressure from online school to understand everything when some pupils need communication for this to happen. Lack of social encounters that happen naturally at school i.e. with teachers, friends etc.
  • Pressure of GCSE, teachers saying they are not proper exams but put the same pressure on us as if they were.
  • Pretty much every aspect of school. They reopened at times that weren’t safe and have been inconsistent about if we are doing exams which is a literal nightmare.
  • Probably lack of entertainment.
  • Probably not being able to attend school in real life or being unable to see your other family
  • Probably the decline in mental health. It’s hard not being able to see friends, to have to cope with the stress of online school, to have to be in such closed quarters with your family, even if you get along with them, and to deal with the stress that comes with growing up in a pandemic. It’s really terrifying, you’re scared for your loved ones safety. And being stuck at home means your online more, which can also negatively impact mental health. It really sucks.
  • Reduction in teaching and school time during important exam years i.e. GCSE for me. A better approach to how grades would be awarded. We were told all exams were cancelled and then my first week back after 4 months off we were given assessments to do which contributed to overall grades as set by my teacher. This was unexpected and stressful. We have been very let down. Access to outdoor sports... we needed to stay fit and healthy and play sports.
  • Relationships, GCSE and A level results.
  • Remote learning and lack of information during exams. Mental health

Risk of sending to schools when everything else was closed.

  • School.
  • School.
  • School.
  • School, coping with mental health.
  • School and education was hugely impacted for many young people and it was very stressful and they had a lot of pressure to do exams which was quite unfair although I understand why we had to do them.
  • School and exams being cancelled as these are our futures.
  • School and GCSE grades.
  • School and mental health.
  • School and mental health of young people.
  • School closures teachers get paid for a job that they were not active doing empty hospitals.
  • School exams.
  • School exams.
  • School exams.
  • School exams.
  • School exams e.g. GCSE.
  • School masks.
  • School work and mental health in young people.
  • School work and not seeing my friends.
  • School, mental health systems.
  • School, you cancelled our exams, but then gave us 5 assessments, which if missed were not allowed to do again which was very unfair. You also couldn’t make your mind up about what you wanted to do. So then you gave us Easter break then threw 3 weeks’ worth of assessments at us.
  • School. Our GCSEs are determined on our work and CAT tests. We have been learning online and I believe it is very difficult. Core subjects like Maths, English and LLW have been extremely difficult for me because Online Learning was strange and quite difficult.
  • Schooling.
  • Schooling.
  • Schooling issues with grades.
  • Schools allowed children to roam around so closely together without masks. Some schools remained open when a student had coronavirus. Teachers shouted at students for being anxious and worried.
  • Schools should take more consideration for pupils as lockdown has been a stressful time for everyone.
  • Seeing family members pass away from this experience.
  • Seeing friends.
  • Seeing friends and education.
  • Seeing friends and family, education.
  • Seeing grandparents.
  • Self-esteem and confidence. The lack of social interaction has all effected our lives especially those with mental health disorders I think it has been extremely detrimental to our development as teens.
  • Semi or little understanding of schoolwork because of not being in the classroom.
  • Separated from friends.
  • Separation from friends.
  • Separation from friends and family may have had negative effects on the mental health of young people so I think the government should provide adequate support for the mental health of young people.
  • Separation from friends and other family members.
  • Seriously, if you feel the government need to help you during lockdown you need to grow up and stop being a baby.
  • Severe decline in mental health, difficulty in learning.
  • Severe Mental health and not enough reach out points that u can attend or contact for help.
  • Shops and leisure centres closed.
  • Shortfall in education.
  • Sitting GCSE exams in May 2021 after being told by Peter Weir that we would have predicted grades and then he changes his mind especially when we haven’t had much face to face teaching.
  • So many tests and exams which we had to do all of them were important. It caused a lot of stress and worry.
  • Social activity
  • Social activity and lack of job practise.
  • Social aspect.
  • Social aspect.
  • Social aspects and mental health.
  • Social connection with others. School life.
  • Social disconnection with others and loss of communication with others.
  • Social distancing.
  • Social distancing is tough on younger children.
  • Social events and sports being cancelled.
  • Social Health has been greatly affected due to lockdown therefore overall affecting our mental health.
  • Social interaction.
  • Social interaction.
  • Social interaction when covid ends.
  • Social interaction with friends both inside and outside of school or college. Being able to exercise that includes the gym.
  • Social interaction, education.
  • Social interaction, not having access to resources for school and practical learning.
  • Social interaction. Stress of work. Unknown of GCSEs etc.
  • Social isolation.
  • Social isolation, mental health, being stuck with their family during lockdown, not being able to do the things they enjoy. Poor decisions made by education board such as cancelling GCSE exams and then last minute requiring students to do CCEA controlled assessments and smaller exams. This put immense pressure and stress on young people as they were given very little notice 2 weeks to revise all 9 subjects and then take the exams, which were basically still GCSEs as they were comprised of past paper questions. Moreover, students were told their grades would be based off these exams.
  • Social life.
  • Social life.
  • Social life.
  • Social life.
  • Social life and fitness and the overall willingness to go out and do things.
  • Social Life. Education.
  • Social life, hobbies.
  • Social lives.
  • Social wellbeing.
  • Socialisation.
  • Socialisation and mental health.
  • Socialisation not being able to see friends.
  • Socialising.
  • Socialising.
  • Socialising.
  • Socialising and mental health.
  • Socialising was typically hard for children to do as most were eager to get outside, although this caused overcrowding which was also a problem. It’s a lose lose situation so there isn’t many things to do about this. Maybe instead of bubbles they should have introduced a cap of people allowed in a certain area, i believe that this would cause children to be able to have fun socialising in their own time, and it would also keep the spread to a minimum as it wouldn’t affect people outside of the group.
  • Socialising with friends.
  • Socialising with people.
  • Socialising with people outside of school. Of course we could talk in school but there was very little social activities to do. I feel young people have been affected the most with COVID.
  • Socialising.
  • Socialising. Due to the pandemic we lack communication skills.
  • Solitude within lockdowns for teenagers.
  • Some children not having the resources to do learning at home due to not having the finances.
  • Some have been neglected physical and emotional abuse.
  • Some people have been hugely affected mental health wise and some people have lost educational capabilities.
  • Some people not being able to see other people in real life.
  • Some teachers just gave out work and didn’t help that much.
  • Spending so much time around family instead of peers because a lot of people don’t get along with their family as much, and school work being too much.

Sport support in schools and clubs and being stuck in abusive households etc.

  • Sporting activities being cancelled.
  • Sports and matches.
  • Sports being called off.
  • Sports clubs being shut as I feel exercise is important for physical and mental wellbeing.
  • Sports clubs needing to open again to play sport otherwise many children get no exercise at all.
  • Sports facilities not being open, they massively help with mental health.
  • Staying home.
  • Staying in the home.
  • Staying inside.
  • Staying inside.
  • Staying inside.
  • Staying inside or away from others, because they can’t be experimental with their interests.
  • Staying motivated about their school work.
  • Stereotypes that young people are responsible for the spread.
  • Still having to do exams.
  • Stress
  • Stress and anxiety. I had exams cancelled 3 days before they were due to go ahead in January, as a studious person I was gutted that exams were cancelled because i was scared I wouldn’t get the grades I deserved. However they’ve now been replaced with a lot more exams. I feel as though I’m under more stress than I would have been if normal GCSEs went ahead because I’ve had almost 40 exams.
  • Stress and Depression.
  • Stress and loneliness, Inability to see extended family and have close contact with them. Not being able to attend Mass.
  • Stress and mental wellbeing and having the freedom and opportunity to speak out about how they are feeling mentally.
  • Stress and school work stop on about catching up not a race.
  • Stress caused by living with people with mental disorders and exam stress from us not knowing what was happening.
  • Stress from school and exams.
  • Stress of assessments in school and mental health being affected because of being bombarded with work after coming back to school after the second lockdown.
  • Stress over important school exams GCSEs A levels and lack of socialisation contact with friends.
  • Stress with school work with sometimes no internet access.
  • Struggling with mental health and body image, losing trust in the government being able to protect us and support us during a pandemic. I feel like the ones doing A levels and GCSE deserved more help and support during these times.
  • Studying online and then having exams.
  • Suicide.
  • Suicide rates increasing.
  • Tbh I didn’t think the lockdowns and other phases were that difficult to get through, but personally, sometimes it was very hard to be bothered to do school from home.
  • Teachers expecting a lot from us. Due to the pandemic and therefore doing school work at home. It was harder to understand topics without the teachers explaining them. Yet without the usual help we would have received in school, they still expected us to achieve how we usually do. And if we do not continually achieve the teachers say we are lazy and do not care. So school has been the most difficult experience.
  • Teachers not delivering lessons properly online mostly self-study and very little teaching or support from teachers.
  • Teachers rushing students with work.
  • Teachers were not prepared enough to support children to study, expectation was too high and children felt under pressure. Organised sport and exercise outside should have continued as this would have helped mental and physical health. Mental health support needed to be provided to young people to help cope.
  • Teaching, socialising, mental health.
  • Technology poverty e.g. schools being given more money to give out laptops to those who need it.
  • Testing pressure after being off for months going in and doing CCEA tests.
  • Exams are draining our mental health and that after a long time on remote learning some students can’t gather information as easy as before.
  • Exams were being cancelled to make life easier and less stressful for young people and then being sent out exam material to complete in school, and mental health issues.
  • It is taking their family away from them
  • Some children have not had the learning that they would have and are not as up to date as they should be and GCSE and A level students’ mental health became worse with the added stress of mini assessments included.
  • The government kept making decisions and then changing their mind without a thought to how this would affect those doing exams and stress people out more as they didn’t know what would happen.
  • The whole of UK should stick with the same idea, because one another has different situations, schools in Northern Ireland are stressed with students and teachers as GCSEs were told they were cancelled like the other parts of the UK but it was not.
  • There was no way in which young people could socialise and see friends, as many young people depend on their friends company for their mental health.
  • They haven’t been able to go to school or socialise with their friends.
  • We didn’t get to see our friends much, and some people were affected more by covid than others and will do worse in their exams.
  • We had to sit examinations and assessment and had to work under pressure for so many different exams for each subject even though Peter Weir told us in January we weren’t sitting GCSEs even though the controlled assembles [assessments?] they are basically GCSEs.
  • Young people have struggled with mental health issues a lot more as they felt lonely and they couldn’t go and meet up with any of their family or friends.
  • Young people like myself have been taken away from the things they love like sports, friends, family, and in general normality.
  • The mini assessments given out be CCEA after students being told exams weren’t going ahead.
  • The ability to conduct proper online learning in my opinion was a problem for young people.
  • The aftermath of the pandemic has impacted on young people’s mental health. From going to staying at the house every second of every day surrounded by your family to out in the world again by yourself not comforted by your family. It was a big change. I think that the move back into school should have been more gradual we should have been eased in.
  • The amount of education that was lost.
  • The amount of exams.
  • The amount of schoolwork being sent via email or Google classroom, and how teachers had no idea what was happening with exams and GCSEs.
  • The amount of stress in school and not being able to meet with family and friends.
  • The amount of testing we are still getting out through each week.
  • The amount of work and stress with GSCEs and A Levels
  • The assessments we did instead of GCSEs were so stressful and it was not fair that we were told we had no exams but then basically had them after an extreme lack of teaching.
  • The back and forth judgement with the exams leaving us all in the dark.
  • The cancelling of exams. How some of our exams were cancelled with as short as 3 days’ notice. Even in normal circumstances exams are stressful enough on students and this pressure was intensified on both teachers and students as the majority of the content was taught online. Now, the new system of centre determined grades has not only put immense pressure on staff but has also left students disadvantaged as each school has a different system of awarding such grades.
  • The centre determined grades.
  • The confusion around exams and not being able to socialise like we used to.
  • The constant changes in education particularly GCSE exams in NI  one minute it is course work centre assessed  then it is exams assessments. Sporting activities  as all group activities and interactions cancelled  mental health has been impacted and support needed
  • The constant contradictions made by the government and exam boards. Telling students they will not sit exams and then making them sit three exams for each subject is extremely frustrating.
  • The current way the education system is treating young people with exams.
  • The damage on teenagers mental health, being stuck in the house and having nothing to do but be left with your thoughts can be very damaging and dangerous.
  • The damage to social skills and confidence in going out where there is a large number of members of the public. Also lack of fun and missed out on memories of childhood with friends and family not in their household.
  • The decline in mental health and the fact that many younger children had their childhoods stolen from them.
  • The decline of mental health.
  • The deterioration in mental health and the level of indecisiveness shown by the government which causes a great deal of stress.
  • The development of social anxiety and mental health problems.
  • The differences between the education received by those who did their exams during the pandemic and those who did not, and how that may impact on our chances of getting jobs in the future.
  • The difficulties of learning at home during lockdown can cause stress.
  • The disruption to Education and the exams this year and last.
  • The disruption to our education. It has been extremely difficult for me to learn as I am a very hands on learner, which was obviously not an option during the pandemic.
  • The drastic change from normal learning to remote learning.
  • The education quality, such as GCSEs or A levels.
  • The Education system and Mental Health crisis. With government lockdowns came the obvious consequences of an economic downturn, but more severely the school system was faced with a troubling situation, to deny young individuals the right to learn. The government should have never closed down schools, it prevented these individuals from learning and achieving their best. To further illustrate this absurdity, the idea of locking young individuals in their homes caused a surge in mental health issues, which will impact grades given out this year.
  • The education system has remained not dealt with appropriately, in my opinion. With tests and exams continuing despite the large hindrance in learning due to the pandemic.
  • The education that many children missed out on due to the lockdowns and the extreme mental health issues that many young people experienced.
  • The effect it has had on young people’s education and mental health.
  • The effect on education. I was one of the lucky ones who had daily online classes and work but even still I found it a struggle as it’s not the same as being in class. Especially with these so called assessments added on more and more stress not to mention to the people who had no online teaching for several months. I think young people’s metal health plummeted as well as their physical health. A lot of children’s parents were working at home during than pandemic therefore the child was left to venture for itself, which meant their child might not have been getting nutritional meals or exercise.
  • The effects that isolation has on young people’s mental health and how young people may find everything opening back up again very anxious as it’s been a long time since we have all been in big public settings.
  • The exam and school situation
  • The exam board CCEA, bombarding student with assessments causing unneeded anxiety and stress.
  • The exam situation. It has been handled horrifically, we are told that our exams are cancelled and that we don’t have to worry but we have to do 3x the assessments to get one grade.
  • The examination process has been an absolute disgrace in the last year and as a 5th year student, I have never had a more stressful experience in my life. Personally, I believe the situation could have been handled a lot better with our students’ opinions taken into consideration.
  • The exams and the overload of homework and assignments plus the pressure of our teachers to do our best in our centred assessed grades. Plus with the amount of revision and exams, that can strain and put stress on our mental health and brain which can increase negatively.
  • The exams. We were told there wasn’t any exams but then they became class tests now back to exams.
  • The fact that a year of young people’s lives has been lost, both socially and educationally.
  • The fact that children were forced into school when the virus was at an all-time high, causing them to get ill, for obvious reasons.
  • The fact that it is becoming normal to wear a mask, wearing a mask is to protect yourself and not others in my opinion.
  • The fact that lockdown has exacerbated the stupidity of the way our government does Trans healthcare. It has made trans youths lives much harder as since it was already difficult before. That wasn’t counting how lockdown has also increased the waiting times to be seen by a Gender Clinic.
  • The fact that most of us were not sure if we were doing GCSEs or not.
  • The fact that they changed how they were going to do the final grade every week.
  • The fact that they stressed us all out by changing what was happening with our GCSEs every few days. Also the fact that either evidence that they have chosen to count as our GCSE doesn’t really make much sense and valuable and good evidence wasn’t being chosen yet other random stuff was. For example, in my Business Studies class we spent a load of weeks on our coursework file and we all worked so hard on it and put a load of hours into it but it wasn’t chosen as evidence. Meanwhile random past paper questions that we did were being counted as evidence.
  • The fact that we cannot go anywhere and that we were NOT seen as a priority to be vaccinated.
  • The fact that we had to sit tests for the biggest exams of my life GCSEs and not having the proper face to face teaching with either being off school or with teachers being off during covid and having stand in teaching staff who did not cover correct curriculum. Also the mental health of students re the above there was a lot of pressure and stress on us due to the lack of teaching.
  • The fact that we have been told things that are then taken back later. Such as to do with the exam situation I have had to complete GCSE exams that are that in all but name even though we were told that we would have no exams.
  • The fact that we have not been able to socialise and this has caused mental health to become quite bad for young people.
  • The fact that we haven’t been able to see our friends or go and do things that we normally would do.
  • The fact that we missed out on so much and our mental health was severely affected but nobody cares and is just telling us to get on with it.
  • The fact we had exams and were told we didn’t.
  • The feeling of being trapped and not being able to freely roam and enjoy outside activities.
  • The feeling of loneliness, maybe only children [only child] that need emotional support such as animals and not having the opportunity to experience their years
  • The GCSE exams. one minute we are told we don’t have to do them and now we are told that we do in fact have to do them.
  • The GCSEs, we were never given clear guidance as to if they were taking place and when they were cancelled they were just replaced by more exams. I’d also say not getting to meet with people had a serious effect on young people’s mental health.
  • The general stupidity on some actions made, such as reopening schools early, which only caused cases to skyrocket.
  • The Government and the education board need to realise that young people have had their education damaged and need to do more to help them rather then put more pressure on their shoulders.
  • The government blocked off the toy aisle for the children which would have affected children greatly as they are too young to grasp the knowledge of the pandemic which would have caused strain on parents because their children would be upset which would have affected parents mental health as they would not like to see their children upset.
  • The government generally not knowing what they are doing
  • The government must address the fact that young people as well as the rest of the population have experienced great pressure as the instability that has been brought upon our lives by the pandemic is significant. The government must address this issue and plan how to bring stability back to the lives of the Northern Irish people.
  • The government saying that covid spreading was all young people’s fault.
  • The grading system.
  • The growth of eating disorders and the activities which have been stopped causing young people to miss out on important aspects of life.
  • The handling of the GCSEs and A levels causing children to be unsure of what was happening and this caused stress.
  • The huge increase in mental health issues in young people. The stress and anxiety caused by the uncertainty over exams and schooling e.g. GCSEs and A levels.
  • The impact it has on people’s headspace and being talked down to if you’re out on a walk.
  • The impact on mental health and education.
  • The inability to see friends and family members who live elsewhere.
  • The inability to see friends and get to actually understand what is being taught by the teacher online.
  • The inability to socialise properly. Boredom and mental health issues stemming from the closure of entertainment activities. Mental health support, especially for people who would not go to a counsellor on their own.
  • The inequality of how people are in the quality of their education, with online school being much better for some people than others, but the exams and assessments at the end being relatively similar.
  • The interpretation of exam results from this year.
  • The isolation and the uncertainty about exams.
  • The isolation at the beginning.
  • The isolation from family and friends and not having the same support that you would have when in school.
  • The isolation from friends and family.
  • The isolation from the outside. The first lockdown hit me hard mentally as my teen depression started developing. I was a bit depressed over the first lockdown but with the help of my parents we sorted it out, yet I do not think that others might have as supportive parents as I do.
  • The isolation, self-esteem and mental health issues of young people need more attention by the government and helping our teachers more who have tried their best to help us.
  • The lack of ability to inform us about what’s going on.
  • The lack of ability to see each other and the lack of things to do.
  • The lack of attention and facilities given to younger and older students, e.g. funding for technological devices and restricted nutritional school meals. The constant, late changes made by the Government made it very difficult and overall frustrating especially when trying to sit exams. People have really lost out on key educational experiences, i.e. for the young basic numeracy and literacy, and others GCSEs, A levels and equivalents.
  • The lack of care for young people’s health.
  • The lack of clarity regarding exams and schoolwork and the changing guidelines and steps towards our final GCSE grades. The lack of mental health resources that are actually beneficial to young people. Feeling overwhelmed by a global pandemic and still being expected to reach full potential in exams and school.
  • The lack of communication to schools and students about what is happening.
  • The lack of consideration towards how important social interaction and being able to talk and have fun with friends in person is for young people. From personal experience lockdown has caused me to feel less confident in class and in sport from before COVID.
  • The lack of consistency in regards to educational needs. Also being isolated from their friends etc. for a long time. Children and young people might be more anxious now.
  • The lack of contact and reassurance from school educational staff and the government.
  • The lack of contact with friends allowed by protocols, as in not being able to meet up or take part in sports with reason. The miscommunication between CCEA and the Education Minister about exams and how grades would be achieved, and the overall lack of responsibility shown by both when it came to giving schools and pupils guidance on internal examinations for predicted grades. How naive schools were to giving time for pupils to adapt to online learning or going back to a classroom environment.
  • The lack of education that the children got
  • The lack of education we received and how we were made to do tests on things that were self-taught.
  • The lack of help and guidance with mental health issues. I myself do not fortunately have mental health issues but many people do and do not talk about them especially being confined to their own house for so many months.
  • The lack of help offered by some teachers.
  • The lack of human interaction.
  • The lack of information for the procedure of GCSE grading, I think a lot of us feel misinformed. One week GCSEs were cancelled and the week later we were all told we were we had to sit 3 weeks of assessments which were basically just GCSEs. We had a lack of time to revise for these and I think a lot of young people felt under pressure to perform well. Alongside this, the government really needs to address the appalling job CCEA has done at informing us of what elements of the course were going to be excluded. When returning to school with no understanding of how we were to be graded and what we were doing, CCEA gave us and teachers absolutely no support. The Government have indefinitely kicked this under the kerb and have failed to give us reassurance.
  • The lack of information on what was happening in terms of school situations up until the last minute and not being able to interact with friends and be able to make new experiences.
  • The lack of information on what was happening with the GCSEs and A Levels and even when information was given out, it was brief and not clear or it was so late getting out we had barely any time to prepare e.g. we didn’t find out the GCSEs were being cancelled until January and then at that point we didn’t even get back into school until the end of March so we only had a number of weeks to get all the assessments completed which may affect our grades in the long run.
  • The lack of in-person social interaction has possibly impacted not only children and young people but everyone’s social skills and willingness to talk to others in person rather than on a phone or over text.
  • The lack of leadership regarding exams and school closures. Then the health and mental health of children during this unprecedented year. The failure of letting us achieve the best we can and holding us back in life for the next 10 years due to the amount of missed education.
  • The lack of social interaction.
  • The lack of social interaction and communication with friends.
  • The lack of social interactions and seeing friends.
  • The lack of support available for those who needed mental support, as well as the neglect some people my age and younger may have been facing during this time, our government were in the absolute wrong to say this was just a hard time for everyone as we are all facing the same thing.
  • The lack of support for kids that don’t have the resources to learn at home not all parents have the education to teach their kids, teacher support for parents wasn’t that good either. This generation will be a lost generation I feel that we have lost out on the most important years of my high school education. Why is school not being extended this year, people who unfortunately don’t have the wealth of money to help get the tools or equipment needed for some of the work that was required will have been left behind and this will reflect on their grades.
  • The lack of support for mental health issues.
  • The lack of support when it comes to education and assessments. My reason for felling like we need more support and leeway when it comes to preparing for assessments and education is because we were unable to learn to our fullest extent and reach our fullest potential during both lockdowns and this could in turn make our grades for GCSE tests lower.
  • The lack of support when it comes to examinations and A levels. We weren’t given any guidance until the very last minute and it felt as though we had just been thrown in the deep end. The fact that the amount of exams we had to sit were tripled was extremely unfair, unreasonable and had a massive impact on young people’s mental health... myself included.
  • The lack of the ability to socialise.
  • The lack of youth centres and things for young people to do safely with friends and peers.
  • The lack of education and help.
  • The length of time we were in not allowed to socialise with our friends and unable to see relatives like we used to.
  • The lockdown has affected many young people mentally, making them feel lonely, depressed, and sometimes making them unmotivated and bored.
  • The lockdowns have undoubtedly had a hugely detrimental effect on both our schooling and mental health. Whilst it could be viewed that the lockdowns were a rest period for teenagers I think they were actually an emotionally turbulent time for many. I think the government should just try to be sympathetic and accommodating to the fact that this year has been difficult for everyone and not everyone will have performed to the best of their ability in things like exams etc.
  • The lockdowns were very hard on us mentally, I found there was little motivation for my school work, even subjects I like. This continues to affect my work, but to a lesser extent. However there is little that the government can address as it is probably too late and the help should have been given at the time. The best thing that can happen is to move on and forget and try to help the people most affected back into school without making them feel separated or weaker than their peers.
  • The loneliness of not being allowed to see your friends.
  • The loss in education.
  • The loss of face to face teaching has affected our education massively over this time
  • The loss of jobs and funding to live off of, me and my family have been lucky enough not to be affected financially by the pandemic. I personally believe that there should be a fund for those people that were affected, because it is not their fault they lost their job and it is absolutely devastating to hear that some people cannot afford to feed their children because of something they had no control over.
  • The loss of socialisation that lockdown has caused as well as the detrimental impact on children and young people’s mental health. The government must take into consideration that it may be challenging for children and young people to transition back to life as we once knew it after being in lockdown for so long. Children and young people who had no access to devices for online learning during lockdown must be supported in order to catch up so their education does not suffer as a result of circumstances that were completely beyond their control. The government must understand that many young people have a lack of trust in them after their indecisiveness and failures to make decisions that affect the lives of young people, examples being the return back to school and exams.
  • The major change in not seeing anyone to seeing everyone.
  • The majority of my GCSE work has been done online and I found this difficult. Waiting for results for my GCSEs will be stressful.
  • The mental health has been decreasing, stress from school.
  • The mental health impacts and the exams.
  • The mental health issues rising as I believe the government has not realised the amount that has been missed out for instance I have missed out on my formal and this links to mental health issues because many people need activities like this to help with depression and anxiety.
  • The mental health of children, even from a very young age, and especially during the pandemic.
  • The mental health of the younger generation has been in jeopardy and lockdown has furthered harmful thoughts and tendencies. I also believe the possibility of being weighed when returning to school at the end of the first lockdown aided in making younger people insecure.
  • The mental health of young people has significantly gotten worse and anxiety and depression have increased substantially.
  • The mental health of young people. I also think they need to stop making decisions on schools and what we have to do were exams and grades are concerned because they are not the ones in the position and no one ever asked how we felt.
  • The mental health toll it has taken on them due to the stresses of school and exams.
  • The messing about over GCSEs, one day they were on, then they were cancelled, then we had to do lots of tests in school when we returned after the 2nd lockdown. Also, the results of GCSEs worry me, as it was a mess last year.
  • The metastasizing [?] situation regarding the awarding of GCSE and A Levels to young people.
  • The missing out of sports and other activities.
  • The most difficult thing that children and young people have experienced is the loss of physical activities and socialisation with other people their age.
  • The most difficult things faced by young people and children during the pandemic, I feel, is the stress of school and expectations to get good grades and complete school work, when at home where some people do not have access or time to complete or teach themselves, due to outside influences i.e. looking after younger siblings etc. I feel the government need to address the issue of children not being able to access resources they would in school, like computers, textbooks etc. so that all children have an equal chance to get a good education. This needs to be a permanent change made by the government so all children own a computer and have their own resources to do homework, not just a short time fix or borrow from school.
  • The most difficult would be learning and how to cope with the exams.
  • The negative affects to school work and exam preparation.
  • The negative effect it has had on some young people’s mental health.
  • The negative impact on young people’s social life, which has a knock on effect on mental health.
  • The not crossing households and children not able to go and see their friends. But more so the ones that do not have any other means of contact with them.
  • The overflow of exams that we have been given even though we haven’t fully been taught the course face to face.
  • The physical barrier between children and their peers.
  • The pressure and stress from the many exams we got at GCSE level.
  • The pressure of doing assessments when we were told we aren’t doing any exams and not having much time to prepare.
  • The pressure regarding their education.
  • The quality of education has been lowered and not all the material needed for following school years has been taught fully.
  • The restrictions on socialising frequently with friends and family outside the household, and the restrictions on a variety of hobbies that young people enjoy and partake in.
  • The restrictions were in place too long in my opinion.
  • The ridiculous amount of and focus on assessment gathering evidence instead of learning. Teachers no longer care about learning just marks and CCEA assessment criteria. 2. Inequality in the school system grammar vs non grammar and kids with parental support vs kids without support just not fair on my mates who got no help they were screwed over. 3. Not being able to do sport no need for small ones to miss out, they were not at risk.
  • The school exam and depression and anxiety.
  • The school meal project was terrible the government did a bad job giving out enough food to people who could not afford it. They also did not really talk much about schoolchildren’s mental health and how much it could have deteriorated through both lockdowns.
  • The schools not doing enough for our mental health.
  • The separation from their family and friends and having to independently isolate from everybody else. Also it can affect the mental health of many students who are struggling with school or work as is.
  • The sharp decrease in mental health and the ineffective communication about how our education was going to be handled.
  • The sheer inability of teaching staff and others being able to adapt and overcome obstacles. It took forever for the school and others to find a good replacement for classrooms and could not keep most of the students working. Miserable.
  • The shift back to reality and the mental effects of getting back to normality  e.g. hugging grandparents, seeing friends, sharing food etc. etc.
  • The situation and what was going to happen with regards to exams like GCSEs and A levels and the AQE kept changing and how they would be done and assessed kept changing along with the syllabus. There was no real clarity or consistency which left many including myself quite uncertain.
  • The situation with GCSEs was handled really badly having a terrible effect on teenagers’ mental health due to work overload and uncertainty.
  • The social isolation.
  • The social life of young people has been affected and the mental health of most young people has dwindled down completely. This must be addressed by the government to give recognition for all the things young people gave up to protect the vulnerable.
  • The steep reintegration process back into society.
  • The stress and pressures of exams as the in class assessments worked out almost more stressful than the real things and of course the lack of social life that young people have had has been difficult.
  • The stress and uncertainty for GCSE and A Level pupils about their exams and uncertainty about how grades will be calculated considering the time lost with face to face learning.
  • The stress levels that it brings when finishing your final GCSE that depend on whether you get into college or university.
  • The stress of being forced to do multiple assessments instead of exams. Trying to do exams on topics that we had to learn at home. Not being able to go anywhere and missing out on things.
  • The stress of doing GCSEs during a global pandemic.
  • The stress of exams and school work.
  • The stress of exams not knowing how they were going to be assessed and the changing times and dates of assessments.
  • The stress of going back to a regular life full of normal activities because I personally have seen many of my friends find it too overwhelming.
  • The stress of having to sit exams with limited face to face teaching.
  • The stress of school online and mental health issues that are caused by the pandemic.
  • The stress of school work especially GCSEs and A levels. I had 3 weeks of assessments which were pretty much exams and my GCSEs which I found unfair as the topics on the exams are the ones we taught ourselves over lockdown.
  • The tests and exams were so frustrating as in January my tests were cancelled about two days before we were meant to sit the exam. These exams have not been handled correctly and I’ve finished them and I’m annoyed at how students have been ignored throughout.
  • The time that they get to meet outside as they are young and need some social time.
  • The toll it has taken on our mental health and also education which has not been dealt with well at all with how GCSEs, A levels and AQEs were handled.
  • The uncertainty around exams and the stress we have faced due to constant assessment as a result of their cancellation.
  • The uncertainty of exams, for example we were informed that whenever Peter Weir announced that exams were cancelled the education board introduced assessments but the assessments are practically real exams leaving us with a load of stress and nervousness.
  • The uncertainty of the end of this pandemic, the lack of emotional and mental support for young and old people and the lack of a social life for teens and adults.
  • The uncertainty with exams, and isolation we weren’t allowed to see friends or family in person and school was only about education not socialising which is the only thing that keeps me going into school every day.
  • The uncertainty with regards to the future of our education.
  • The unhealthiness caused in many cases due to people being stuck inside.
  • The way GCSE and A Levels have worked.
  • The way the GCSE and A Level exams have been so poorly handled. The stress and pressure put on young people going in to sit very big exams with only about 3 weeks’ notice and the fact students were told any stuff covered over online learning wouldn’t be tested yet it made up 90 percent of the exams. The effect of lockdown and restrictions on our mental health. We are constantly being told how important it is and to seek any help when we need it yet the reality is there is nowhere we can get help, as there is no facilities in schools, youth centres or we can’t get to visit a doctor, therapist or mental health specialist due to the wait time and the restrictions.
  • The way the government handled exams was terrible, leaving many young people seriously and unnecessarily stressed and anxious this should definitely be addressed. As well as this, allowances need to be made for students starting A Level in 2021, and university students, as the full courses were not completed at GCSE, which ultimately will effect further education.
  • The way they dealt with exams such as GCSEs and A Levels. The mental health of young children returning to school after such a long time, e.g. social anxiety.
  • The way we have been told that we didn’t have to do any of our GCSE exams but we then had only a few weeks to prepare for exam style assessments in an exam hall.
  • The workload forced upon any students in GCSE or A Level year groups. For a few months everyone was certain that there wouldn’t be any exams... Then, all of a sudden, it was announced that we’d have to do Assessments instead. Students had less than a month to prepare for these, which seemed to cause my fellow students mental health to decline... I believe that change for the entire education system is in order, because caring more about grades than students’ mental health and wellbeing should not be tolerated.
  • The workload from schools and the lack of support from teachers and people on the school board.
  • The worries about school and exams and their mental health possibly being affected
  • The year above me got off so easy with their GCSE results compared to my year. Also how many times CCEA changed their minds about what my GCSE results would be based on made.
  • Their childhood. It’s so overlooked because it’s not important but us teenagers never got our teen years lives like prom and a leavers day, it was all socially distanced goodbyes and no fully closed chapters.
  • Their education.
  • Their mental health.
  • Their mental health and they have lost out on a normal childhood.
  • Their mental health with exams and stress.
  • Their mental health, families who rely on free school meals, families who rely on a business that was shut during the lockdown, families who rely on food banks.
  • Their mental health, I don’t think young people should have to specifically reach out for help to receive at least some form of support for their mental health.
  • Their mental heath.
  • Their social health as they have missed out on a big chunk of socialising with their friends, missing birthday parties and family members.
  • The isolation that young people went through during the lockdowns and the negative impacts that had on our mental health
  • Their education went down, wouldn’t be able to see family members or friends.
  • There have been a lot of problems regarding mental health, which is dangerous. And finding it hard to work e.g. loosing focus or getting easily distracted. Which makes studying hard.
  • There is a gap in my learning as some of my GCSE courses have not been not finished as there is no time left before our final assessments. School is finished for Year 12 in the middle of May and it feels like we have just got back to some normality and seeing friends but now we are being sent home again.
  • Their mental health.
  • There was a lot of pressure on young people who were stressed about their exams and it wasn’t dealt with properly.
  • These years are important development years and not being able to socialise in person has affected many people social skills and some people have developed things such as social anxiety. It was also really damaging on peoples mental health.
  • They can’t go outside and exercise nor socialise and that can affect physical and mental health issues.
  • They couldn’t go out and meet with friends and family this obviously got to their mental health being stuck in the house all day.
  • They couldn’t go see friends, or they couldn’t get their education.
  • They don’t get to spend enough time with their friends.
  • They need to allow for a full year missed by pupils.
  • They weren’t allowed to do physical activities even outdoors, which led to their mental health deteriorating.
  • Those children who participate in sports and from my own experience I haven’t been able to train for 14/15 months and it has greatly affected me mentally and physically I also have heard others remarks and they are the same.
  • To go to school and wearing face masks all day.
  • Too much homework, with no help from the teachers.
  • To socialise with their friends.
  • To wear facemasks all of the time.
  • Too many exams in school in a short period of time.
  • TRYING TO ADAPT TO ONLINE SCHOOLING, NOT BEING IN CONTACT WITH FAMILY PHYSICALLY, DISRUPTION OF ROUTINE, FAVOURITE PASTIMES ARE LIMITED.
  • Trying to do school from home when some people don’t have resources or the help they need especially when parents are key workers.
  • Trying to do school work.
  • Trying to do school work at home and keep up with all of it without having a teacher to help, although you could contact them online it wasn’t the same and myself and others really struggled.
  • Trying to get work completed for exams without pupil to teacher interaction face to face.
  • Trying to learn from home and expected to get high grades.
  • Trying to stay in shape.
  • Trying to study for exams that we got told about 3 weeks before they happened, and then all the topics on the exams and tests was stuff we had to teach ourselves over lockdown.
  • Unable to leave the house, meaning they cannot meet with friends or significant others or are unable to do outside activities.
  • Unable to meet up with friends.
  • Unable to play football.
  • Unable to see grandparents with the fear of giving them the virus, unable to use public spaces, school year missed in my last year, so many experiences throughout school and lack of education.
  • Unable to see their friends.
  • Unable to socialise and see people face to face.
  • Uncertainty about AQE Uncertainty about GCSEs and A levels.
  • Uncertainty about exams.
  • Uncertainty about exams. Mental health.
  • Uncertainty for the future.
  • Uncertainty of exams.
  • Uncertainty of school and exams.
  • Uncertainty over exams and future.
  • Uncertainty regarding GCSEs.
  • Uncertainty surrounding exams.
  • Uncertainty with exams. Predicted grades. Working online.
  • Uncertainty, stress and mental struggle.
  • Unfair examinations.
  • Unfair grading of GCSEs , many, many, many assessments to complete
  • Unsure.
  • Very slow Wi-Fi connections sometimes prevented me from accessing all that I needed to online, which was difficult sometimes for me personally.
  • We are being treated like we are just figures to exam boards and teachers. We need personal and targeted teaching even if it seems impossible to the ones teaching us.
  • We couldn’t see our family, and personally I couldn’t fly to Lithuania to see my family.
  • We don’t know what is happening with our results and mental health.
  • We have been blamed for a lot of the spreading even though it is not our fault as we are being stereotyped and discriminated against as a group. Additionally, we have been held back from normal teenage things and are missing out.
  • We have been unable to see our friends and if you do not have a gaming console you were unlikely to play with them.
  • We have had years of schooling and education taken away and we aren’t getting taught properly. My GCSEs were cancelled and replaced by assessments and more work, I would’ve preferred an exam.
  • We have not been able to socialise with friends.
  • We haven’t been able to develop social skills very well. Some of us are going into A levels and we don’t have experience with GCSE. Being stuck in a house with family unable to go anywhere can start arguments and tension.
  • We haven’t been able to meet with our friends. We have higher social anxiety and struggle with relationships.
  • We missed out on GCSEs and were not able to socialise.
  • We should have gone into lockdown sooner and then not as many people would die.
  • We were unable to socialise with our friends and online school meant we had no place to escape.
  • Wearing a mask.
  • Wearing masks in school.
  • Wearing masks in school, the government needs to listen to the publics opinions instead of doing what suits them
  • Wearing masks, constantly sanitizing hands, social distancing from friends.
  • Weir making decisions mostly wrong
  • Well basically we got told we weren’t doing tests but we are still getting them
  • Well for young people I would say loss of family and friends throughout my own experience most of my friends kind of drifted apart then when we all came back together things didn’t feel the same and for children I would say the time they have lost spending time outdoors and being with friends because there never going to get that time back.
  • What school they will get into in the future.
  • What WILL happen next not what they think MAY happen, and mental health issues if anyone has to be alone.
  • When all sports were cancelled.
  • While not necessarily experienced by myself, from the many cases I have seen in the news and on social media over the past year, I believe that the government needs to care for vulnerable children and young people in our society not just while schools are closed, but in the future post pandemic recovery. This includes addressing child abuse, child poverty and negative impact that has on a child’s education, as well as continuity of free school meals. I also believe that the pandemic has exposed a wider mental health crisis in society that while not specific to just young people, it has affected them markedly due to the social isolation at a time of development and growth.
  • Why it is one rule for one group and another for a different group. Why they had to make everything about how different they were instead of fighting covid.
  • Will our GCSEs be considered equal to GCSEs that were done before coronavirus to employers.
  • With everyone being in more and not at school as much I believe that it severely hindered the social development of everyone not just children.
  • Work and school work.
  • Work experience, socialising
  • Work online being used as GCSE evidence.
  • Working class families have struggled a lot during this pandemic and the Governments response, for example through free school meal provision, is disgusting. The underpaying of NHS workers and overall the underfunding of the NHS affects the whole country and is a fault of the Government which needs an urgent address. Young people’s mental health has been deteriorating in the pandemic, and the Government need to fund CAMHS with more money to provide sustainable help to young people. For example, eating disorders are often reflected on an individual’s weight. Eating disorders are not weight disorders and each person suffering should receive help regardless of their weight and BMI. I understand this form of judgement is a result of underfunding, the Government need to fix this.
  • Worries in terms of assessments, especially ones with considerable weight to qualifications e.g. GCSEs.
  • Worrying about exams and how they will be graded.
  • Worsening of the mental health of those who already struggled.
  • You couldn’t see anybody.
  • Young kids not being able to play around at the park and all sports being completely cancelled until further notice.
  • Young people and children dealing with mental health issues, and having no one to talk to, we should have classes in school to learn about mental health, and learn how to deal with it correctly.
  • Young people and children have missed out on a lot of school and have been put under a lot of pressure to do well in exams, especially GCSE students, having almost 3 exams for every subject. It was very hard for people to find motivation to study for these exams. I feel like they should be more considerate and go easy on students going into A levels.
  • Young people feel lonely and trapped. During the first lockdown you physically couldn’t meet anyone which made people feel very isolated and alone.
  • Young people generally seem to have become much less comfortable in social situations.
  • Young people may have isolated themselves in their room and this has affected a lot of people’s mental health it has also been hard to catch up with work and stay up to date with all that they’d missed.
  • Young people’s mental health, and some put at an unfair advantage due to not having the same resources as others.
  • Young people need their social lives to return to normal.
  • Young people now struggling with anxiety and fear of going outside and that these lockdowns may never end.
  • Young people were not able to get out like we usually would to see our friends without elderly or adults hating on us.
  • Young people with strict parents not being allowed to see anyone due to restrictions. I hadn’t seen friends from October 2020 until April 2021 due to restrictions yet others with less strict parents had good mental health as they were allowed.
  • Young people’s mental health.
  • Young people’s mental health.
  • Young people’s mental health and wellbeing must be addressed. Additionally, making sure young people have enough food and are not in poverty in these tough times. Furthermore, negative effects on our education and our educational needs have to be addressed.
  • Younger children who are unable to use social media cannot contact their friends. They are not able to develop social skills which are important to prevent introverted behaviours when they grow up. Everyone’s mental health has been affected but for some older kids it is more manageable if they have access to social media.
  • Younger people who are studying for GCSEs aren’t in school enough to get them
  • Youth clubs not being opened. School. Not seeing people.




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Disclaimer:© ARK 2003 Last Updated on Tuesday, 19-Oct-2021 14:15