A few weeks ago, we found ourselves in lockdown for the third time this year. However, instead of seeing this as a setback, we decided to view this as an opportunity to connect with our Carmel community in new and innovative ways.
In every virtual connection that we established with the girls, whether it be through emails or video calls, we have been in a constant state of awe with the unity and empowerment that our students have showcased. The togetherness that we have seen is a true reflection of our key statement: ‘As Carmel girls, we are stronger together’.
This unprecedented time resulted in the culmination of many new initiatives and events which have allowed us to maintain a sense of connection – even while at home. To achieve this, we held online leadership meetings to organise weekly student-led activities, reintroduced our Carmel Connected website, ran a variety of sports challenges and created different themed assemblies. With the help of our leadership team, we were able to bring Culture Week and Māori Language Week to the students in a virtual setting, which was a huge success!
The Carmel Connected website was first established last year to assist our students during lockdown. This year, our leadership team revamped the website to accommodate not only the girls’ lockdown needs, but also to help our students even when we return to school.
Having our weekly assemblies online definitely was a big change from the usual fortnightly in-person gatherings. However, to boost the participation we inaugurated different themes for the girls to follow each week. An example of this was our red, black and white theme to celebrate Māori Language Week which provided the girls with something to look forward to.
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 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 with 45 other secondary schools across Auckland.
Lockdown has definitely been an unusual experience for all of us, but as Carmel girls we have been able to grapple with this new reality with a positive outlook that has ultimately strengthened our Carmel community as a whole.
Carmel Sports Council helps keep students active
The lockdown period has been tough, but at Carmel the Sports Council has been trying to improve the situation for others. We have been keeping students active and involved.
The Carmel Sports Council is a group of students who all share a love of sport. When at school we run Friday lunchtime activities, Athletics Day, Swimming Sports and organise a wide range of events to get the Carmel community enjoying a variety of sports. Since being in lockdown and not able to run these activities we have come up with many alternatives. These include daily takeovers, bingo, distance challenge, workout Wednesday and many more. A ‘daily takeover’ involves a Sports Council member taking over the Carmel Sports Instagram page and sharing what they have been doing to stay happy, motivated and healthy in lockdown. For the ‘Bingo challenge’ every day a new activity has to be completed within your bubble and at the end of the week a collage of your photos has to be sent in. The ‘distance challenge’ had both the year groups and teachers walking and running. The aim was to walk/run as many kilometres as you could to win the competition. Lastly, workout Wednesday aimed to get the community active by following the workout that was posted on the Instagram page.
These challenges and activities have allowed the students to stay connected. Through their participation they have been able to socialise with other students, get outside for some fresh air and most importantly, have fun.
