With no return to school on the cards in the near future, we again had to adapt and work out how to ensure we continued to recognise our young achievers in the school. We successfully ran the senior sports awards online recently and will repeat the same process for the intermediate students once we return to on site learning.

We utilised our strong online platforms of Instagram, Facebook and the student connect website on a daily basis announcing awards  each day in scheduled times and building towards the six major awards at the end of the week. It was important to us as a school to ensure we continue to engage and recognise all our students who are achieving in this difficult time; it shows their ongoing commitment to their sport and the attributes that encompasses.

We continue to be honoured to have so many amazing people involved in sports at Carmel College and are incredibly lucky to have ongoing support from our community.

Our top award winners this year are:

Service to Sport – Sophie Catlin (Water polo)

The Going Cup for contribution over a number of years – Hannah Halpin (Football)

Team of the Year – Grace Buxton and Maria Hanabadi (Beach volleyball)

Volunteer of the Year - Beth Railton

Coach of the Year - Rhys Van Stipriaan (Volleyball)

Outstanding Sporting Achievement – Greer Morley (Kayaking)

Commitment to Sport – Katie Linstrom (Basketball, Netball, Touch, Volleyball)

Junior Sportsgirl of the Year – Lani Rawle

Senior Sportswoman of the Year – Caitlin O'Reilly

Carmel Connected

Three months has passed since we found ourselves in lockdown for the third time this year. This has now been recorded as the longest lockdown we’ve ever experienced as a city. Our revamped Carmel Connected website has allowed us to maintain a sense of connection with the girls – even while at home. Our leadership team worked hard on the website to accommodate not only the girls’ lockdown needs, but also to help our students, even when we return to school. Although not all year levels are returning to on-site learning at the same time, the Carmel Connected website is still applicable to everyone, no matter where they are.

There is a multitude of resources for the girls to utilise, such as the ‘What’s Happening’ page which keeps everyone up to date on recent events or challenges that are happening throughout the week. Students check this section very frequently as we update it weekly. During these past few months at home, we also had the privilege of working with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, along with many different Auckland Head Prefects to develop effective initiatives to combat the arising presence of Covid-19 and its threat to our school communities. We also worked on multiple videos: one with our own leadership team, another with the head prefects of the North Shore and a third video with 45 other secondary schools across Auckland – reminding the girls to stay safe and distanced during these times. All of these resources concerning lockdown have been included in our ‘Lockdown’ page.

On Carmel Connected there are also lots of information and interactive activities the girls can use to keep busy. Our Heads of Sport and  the Carmel Sports Council have come up with fun videos and challenges to help our girls stay active. There is also a ‘Wellbeing’ page set up by the Heads of Council that takes a look at students’ mental health with ways to uplift their overall hauora. The Heads of Special Character were able to produce some beautiful resources that provide the girls with fun ways to stay immersed in their faith during these trying times. Finally, our Heads of Academic, along with the help of some amazing Year 12 students, have created an intricate study website that offers lots of study resources such as tips for exams, tutoring sessions, and ways to stay focused and motivated at home.

Lockdown has definitely been an unusual experience for all of us, but we have utilised this experience to bring out the Carmel Connected initiative. We have been able to grapple this new reality with a positive outlook that has ultimately strengthened our Carmel community as a whole.