The Covid pandemic was the greatest challenge ever faced by a Tipperary secondary school

 An exhibition charting the story of the CBS High School  Clonmel  is currently running at the Tipperary Museum of Hidden History in Clonmel.

This year the High School is celebrating the 125th anniversary of the foundation of the school.
The exhibition will remain open until June 7.

At no point in the lifetime of the school was there such chaos, uncertainty, and mayhem as when the global Covid-19 pandemic struck.

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The school continued to function through turbulent times nationally and internationally, through the War of Independence, the Civil War, the Great War, and the Second World War, but the Covid-19 outbreak brought unprecedented disruption to school life.

Shock, stress, and anxiety filled the High School classrooms and staff rooms on March 12, 2020 when Leo Varadkar made his announcement to the nation that all schools would close at 4 pm that day.
Teachers, students, and parents had to immediately adjust to a totally new learning environment. The pandemic forced a new order which had a dramatic effect on school life.

State exams were cancelled and predictive grades were introduced. School lockdowns, the Google classroom, live classes, a new regime of mask-wearing, students sanitising their desks, screens separating the students and the teachers, CO2 monitors in the classrooms, and class evacuations became normal.

Students had to stay in their classrooms for every class with teachers coming to them flipping the normal routine to cut down on traffic in the corridors of the school when classes returned.

During lockdowns, staff had to deal with resource and access issues with students not having suitable devices and not having reliable broadband at home.

Teacher Regina Tobin said: “There was just pure shock, the stress was unbelievable.
“At the very start of it, we thought we were closing for two weeks and would be back after Easter.
At that stage nobody knew the enormous impact it would have and for how long. It was a whole new world, the IT issues saw huge challenges.

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“When we did return the mask-wearing made it very difficult to communicate and it was particularly hard on first years.
“It was just a crazy time.