LEARNING from home during COVID-19 lockdowns made the classroom feel worlds away for many school students but for The Hamilton and Alexandra College international boarders, Yong An Ly and Yong Soeung Ly, learning from home meant they were nearly 7000 kilometres from school.

At the end of 2019, the brothers made the same journey they normally did at the end of the term, flying from Melbourne to Cambodia to spend time with their family during the school holidays.

When the time came to return to school for Term One 2020, COVID-19 restrictions and border closures blocked the brothers from making the trip back to school.

“We were doing remote learning for two years in Cambodia,” Yong An said.

“We didn’t expect it, we expected that the Covid pandemic would end soon - one or two terms - we didn’t expect it to last two years.”

“I used Snapchat to talk with my friends.”

With their boarders stranded in their home country, College staff did their best to keep their students engaged and on track.

College international student coordinator, Tim Cameron said while students and teachers did their best, different time zones and the hybrid model of learning presented various challenges.

“These boys are very diligent and very dedicated to their studies,” he said.

“They had some 5am starts so they did an amazing job keeping up with the content and their grades were strong.

“They even sat their exams remotely … so they’ve done amazing.

“When everyone was remote learning, that was a lot easier for them and the school because everyone was online, but when we went back to the hybrid model where majority of students were in class and they were online they were called in so teachers either wore a microphone or they just spoke into their computer and shared their screen.

“And so the boys had to listen in … that was challenging in itself because you’ve obviously got classroom noise and everything going on so there was a lot of expectations on the teachers to run a hybrid model but most did fantastic.”

Two years later, the brothers are back on campus and a couple of weeks into Year 11 and Year 12.

Yong Seoung said he was excited to be back at College and relieved he was no longer reliant on a good internet connection to keep up in the classroom.

“It was quite difficult – sometimes I couldn’t hear my teachers,” he said.

While the whole ordeal was challenging, the brother said quality family time they otherwise would not have had, was a highlight of their two years back home.

“I have one more brother and one more sister, it was great to have time with them, I could spend more time with my family,” Yong An said.

The brothers are the first international boarders to return to College, but the school said they were confident more students who remain overseas would return to the boarding house once the borders open up and students could freely travel to and from Australia.