A nine-year-old has charted the highs and lows of the pandemic and been honoured with a Blue Peter badge.

Nadesh Zahra who lives in Bridgewater Place, Leybourne, said she made a comparison of the various lockdowns over 2020 and this year.

She said: “I wrote about the restrictions and what was closed and what was open, how I did my school work and whether or not I could see my friends.

“I normally write the diary in the afternoon after lunch whenever I get the time.”

Nadesh’s diary has impressed her family and her teachers, and earned her the coveted badge.

In it, the Year 4 student explains her excitement at returning to school in September, the challenges of online learning and even discusses the new strain of Covid-19 that put an end to plans to relax lockdown rules over the Christmas period.

“It was very boring and hard,” she said of trying to do her school work at home.

Proud mum Zeenara Najam said: "I think, because she was watching the news and reading the newspapers, she started to write down what was changing in all the different lockdowns, how she was feeling and about how she was a bit bored as well.

"She is a very dynamic child.

"It amazed me that she even tried to analyse it and that she managed to make a comparison between all the lockdowns, how they were different and how she felt during them.”

Zeenara added: “She is very good in many ways.

“She is very good with her creative writing and she has got the headteacher’s award at school for her writing previously as well.

“She reads a lot so she is very good with her reading and writing.

“But she also uses art and graphics to help explain her point as well.”

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