Get a second router, have it connect to the main router as a client. All your trusted devices should only connect to the second router. No need to worry about the setup of your client devices that way.
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Be aware that you will have no privacy on the school's network. They usually block all known VPN endpoints, and require certs that will allow MiTM even for HTTPS connections. For lotsa reasons it's best to cleanly separate personal activity, from school activity. Or work activity when you get a job.
Since you mentioned "gaming distro"... what I do for private gaming is buy games from GOG. Every one I ever tried runs fine even with no network access. You can use sth like firejail to do this super easy. No need to set up a VM or w/e. Then you know it isn't phoning home. B/c it can't!
Plus, all their games are DRM-free. Which is part of what makes them private. I'd rather my dollars support DRM-free stuff. Supply and demand. The more ppl buy DRM games, the more it teaches game vendors that we don't care. There are other DRM-free stores too. Stay away from Steam. Go for GOG, Humble, and w/e else. Then you can have private gaming.
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privacy on a local network is an excellent use case for a virtual private network (vpn). your network traffic between your computer and the provider will be encrypted. i'd also look into dns-over-https, which will also encrypt your dns record requests. if everything is set up properly, the only things visible from the home network will be encrypted dns record requests out to your dns provider, and encrypted traffic to your vpn provider and back. however, with the virus on your mothers computer, i would consider the whole network compromised. you can try and harden against local intrusion, but using a vpn will not protect you from a virus, only prevent it from knowing about your traffic if its sniffing from another computer.
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for home there are small and cheap travel routers you can use - gl.inet has some that i would recommend but there are other options too (they are roughly the volume of a phone and ~$30)
You are already using linux, no need to worry about windows viruses. You can also enable your firewall, if need to be more paranoid.
No, you need your net to be vlan aware.
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