LOCKED DOWN BUT NOT
LOCKED OUT
Two weeks into Term 3, the country found itself once again battening down the hatches against the onslaught of the Delta variant of COVID that found its way onto our shores. For Aucklanders, this turned into a protracted and frustrating period of isolation from the rest of the country and the denial of many daily privileges that we take for granted. Once again, Dio switched seamlessly from classroom to online learning. Head of Senior School Margaret van Meeuwen reports.
W
hen we saw the back end of 2020, we all hoped that 2021 was a new decade, a new start and a goodbye to COVID. After the stuttering start to the school year (two short Auckland lockdowns, which cruelly cancelled EOTC Week) we were rudely reminded that COVID is the gift that just keeps on giving. And with the Delta strain, it’s an insidious tentacle that is proving harder and harder to break. The impact of this has hit the Year 13 cohort the hardest. For the second year in a row no Winter Tournament Week, and no national representative status for those at that level. None of the big arts events like Big Sing, and internally, Year 10 Relay for Life again an online event (which did still raise over $50,000 for the Cancer Society.) Prize givings, arts and sports awards, the Leavers’ Dinner and the Graduation Ball all cancelled. As the lockdown proved to be anything but ‘short and sharp’ for Auckland at least, Dio teachers and students needed every ounce of resilience to make it work again. And in fact, despite all of this, teaching and learning at Diocesan has continued
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DIO TODAY
amazingly well. Classics and social studies teacher Katherine Woods described online learning as a bit like “trying to make your favourite cake but with a different oven, different ingredients and in a strange kitchen! The recipe needs to be adapted, substitutions made and sometimes a bit of luck thrown into the mix to ensure that it all doesn’t turn to custard.” Unit outlines have had to be quickly adapted: “Teaching World War I to Year 7 and not wanting them to be overwhelmed with images or activities that were too heavy, without teacher guidance, led to a range of new resources and activities being developed. We looked at food in the trenches and on the Home Front, the role of animals in the war and communication, leading to morse code messages and torch light signals at home.” Similarly, science teacher Tessa Lambert reports: “The Year 8s were doing nutrition and so I sent them into their pantries to look at the food in their own homes. The Year 7s are doing ecosystems and so I recreated some of the lessons to get them out into their own backyards and explore the ecosystems there instead.”
