Life not all hard over pandemic
Beth McHaffie is a high achiever but still learnt a valuable lesson or two during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The 2020 Mountainview High School head girl completed year 13 and is looking forward to studying towards a Bachelor of Midwifery at Otago Polytechnic.
The 18-year-old said there were a lot of challenges and chances for self-reflection during 2020.
Many usual school events either did not go ahead or were postponed because of the pandemic. However, once past that period she managed to help organise 40 South Canterbury high school students into sponsorship, sleeping rough to raise money for Family Works’ foodbank in October and raise awareness of Black Lives Matter around the school with chalked slogans on concrete in June.
Learning from home over lockdown and through alert level 3 for about six weeks was hard, she said.
‘‘I had some temper tantrums over physics and learnt a lot about myself.’’
Studying for NCEA level 3 and having to complete internal assignments outside the classroom was not easy, she said.
‘‘It was hard not having a teacher there for extra reassurance, and not seeing friends.’’
There were Zoom calls with teachers and Facetime with friends but it wasn’t the same as being face-to-face with them, she said.
‘‘If there had been no Covid there would have been a lot more balance. It was stressful not knowing when we could go back to school.’’
McHaffie usually worked after school at a supermarket to save for her tertiary studies in 2021 but instead had to stay home over lockdown.
To help students such as McHaffie, the Ministry of Education changed the number of credits required to pass University Entrance from 14 to 12 and lowered the number of credits for endorsement from 60 to 52.
‘‘It was a really good thing, it took some of the stress off. I like to think I would have passed if the marks were the same level as usual.’’
She has nothing but praise for her teachers who got students through, juggling their domestic lives with distant teaching.
There was a lot of theory to do and practicals which could not be done until students returned to school, in the middle of May, after eight weeks away from school.
‘‘It was not an easy time, but we did have fun during lockdown with posting on the school Facebook page, setting challenges, and making videos.’’
McHaffie does not think the temporary adjusted credit system will have a negative impact in the job market as students still had to reach certain set standards to pass in difficult circumstances.
‘‘[Covid] was a huge learning curve. I learnt better time management and not to procrastinate and how important it is to stay in touch with friends and how much I really need people. And I’m more resilient than I thought.’’