Isolation a little brighter thanks to pupils

Students at Te Aro School have welcomed Covid-19 isolators at Wellington’s Grand Mercure hotel with artwork to brighten their exercise area.

Passengers on a repatriation flight from Korea landed in Wellington on June 26, and were taken by bus to the hotel, right across the road from the primary school.

The students cut out and decorated stars, an extension of their Matariki celebrations.

Louis Condra, 10, made a star that read ‘‘Keep on trucking’’, inspired by a line from TV show The Good Place.

He hoped it would help the isolators keep their spirits up when they saw it, and ‘‘give them a good laugh’’.

Lucinda Griffiths, 11, said she knew it would be a stressful time for those people, so she copied a poster from her judo club that read ‘‘Keep calm and carry on’’.

Teachers talked to their classes about their new, temporary neighbours, and the students’ compassion and empathy dwarfed any feelings of unease.

‘‘I’d be feeling stressed,’’ Griffiths said, if she were in that position, with ‘‘a lot of worries’’. She hoped her art would be a reminder to stay calm and positive.

Niamh Hayward, 10, decorated her star with ‘‘Keep calm, be kind.’’

‘‘After I laminated it, I was like, ‘Man, this is everywhere,’ ’’ she said.

‘‘But everyone else’s were supercomplicated, so I wanted to keep it simple.’’

Te Poua¯ kai Brown, 9, made a star that was doughnut-inspired. He said something fun might cheer people up. ‘‘And I like doughnuts.’’

Captain Mark Sullivan-Jones, on duty at the hotel, said he had received the stars – the second batch of art – yesterday and had hung them up around the elevators.

A banner, reading ‘‘Kia Ora’’, now hung in the exercise area.

‘‘It was a really cool touch,’’ he said.

Phoebe, 10, welcomed the arrivals with a sign, which was spotted on arrival by Jo Hay, and quashed her fears of a ‘‘groundswell of negativity towards returning Kiwis’’.

‘‘To think that I am being welcomed by kids who have never met me or the other returnees makes me proud to be a Kiwi.’’

Staying in managed isolation was a comfortable but strange experience, Hay said.

‘‘I never expected that the highlight of my day would be the opportunity to walk round and round a car park.’’

ROSA WOODS/STUFF Te Aro School children, from left, Louis Condra, 10, Lucinda Griffiths, 11, Niamh Hayward, 10, and Te Pouakai Brown, 9, made signs for people quarantined across the road at the Grand Mercure.

The pupils cut out and decorated stars as an extension of their Matariki celebrations.