Ashburton College head girl Poppy Kilworth will work remotely from the start of Term 2 and connect with fellow head students like Henry Chapman, Kyle Cabangun and Maria Costas via Google Meet. Photo supplied.A new school term starts next Wednesday and students around the district will be learning at home with the support of teachers and parents.

Where possible, students will be able to log in for remote learning using the internet, while others will use hard copy workpacks to maintain their education during lockdown.

Ashburton College principal Ross Preece said his staff had worked hard to prepare for distance learning and the start of Term 2 on April 15.

He said many of the courses were already available via the Google communities or other electronic means. But, a number of courses had huge practical components and learning for those was being “modified and accommodated as was viable”.

Staff were still compiling numbers, but indications were that around 60 of the school’s 1200 students had no device for online learning, while five families had no internet.

That information was being passed on to the Ministry of Education. The ministry’s website had crashed on Monday because many of the country’s 2800 schools were uploading data to the master list, he said.

Mr Preece said the reality of Term 2 could see sports, events, assemblies, trips, the college ball and other distractions postponed, so schools could catch up on missed work.

That was particularly important for students involved in NCEA.

Mr Preece said the lockdown had already created a stressful situation at home and meant students could not hang out with their friends.

He urged parents not to push students to do too much school work because that would also add to their stress levels.

It is a similar story at Ashburton Intermediate where students are being also surveyed to see if they are capable of working online at home.

Principal Brent Gray said so far there had been 269 responses from the 437 children at the school and just a handful had no internet access, and a dozen or so had no dedicated device to use.

“Like other schools we did give out hard copy workpacks at the end of last term to those who thought they might not be be able to access work online. We probably gave out 70-80 of those.”

Mr Gray said his teachers had set up online classrooms and some had also been continuing to communicate with students during lockdown.

“Come Wednesday, students will use devices if they can, and those that can’t will be expected to use their workbooks.”

At Netherby School all students were given workpacks on the last day of term.

Principal Phil Wheeler said it was important for students to maintain their learning routine during lockdown.

While learning online was a good option, a number of students at his school did not have access to the internet or devices at home. Teachers would touch base with all parents this week to assess online capability. Comprehensive workbooks had been compiled by teachers in syndicate and they would enable students to continue to learn the basic facts and to maintain reading and writing levels outside of the classroom.

If the lockdown continued for longer, the Ministry of Education would have to decide how to distribute more workbooks to students, or even look at how it could offer devices and connectivity to families.

By Mick Jensen © The Ashburton Courier - 9 April 2020

Maddi Lowry. Photo supplied.Hard work and dedication to the bike has paid off for Ashburton teen Maddi Lowry. Donning the red and black for Canterbury, the track cycling star in the making has recently earned a slew of medals including a national title. Adam Burns spoke to the AshColl pupil about what it takes to bag the rewards.

Training between six to seven times a week, Maddi Lowry has undeniably dug it in for the spoils on the bike.

The 15-year-old track cyclist has enjoyed a slew of top-notch results in recent times, capped off by a superb all-round showing at the Age Group Track National Championships in Invercargill last month.

Representing Canterbury, Lowry returned from the four-day event with gold, silver and bronze medals completing a profitable weekend of results for the Ashburton College pupil.

“I just wanted to do the best that I could do. I just really wanted to perform,” she said.

The milestones began when she triumphed in the under-17 girls’ points race final as she completed a 10-point haul across the 7500m distance to win gold.

The newly minted national champion added to this achievement by securing silver in the team pursuit as part of a Canterbury quartet which were unlucky to be pipped by a national record-breaking display by their Auckland counterparts.

“Winning the gold was great but being in the team environment with all the Canterbury girls and all of the Canterbury team was really good,” she said.

Also on the final day, Lowry clinched a bronze medal alongside Samantha Walker in the uber-technical under-17 girls’ madison event, which was the highlight for father Doug Lowry.

“They rode out of their skins,” he said.

Lowry added the madison format always required thinking on your feet.

“You really have to be thinking when you’re racing because it’s against the rules to go under someone when they’re slinging, you always have to go around.

“We thought about everything.”

But it does not come easy.

Lowry was put to the test with a stringent training schedule, helmed by coach Christchurch’s Terry Gyde who has mentored the likes of Sarah Ulmer, Greg Henderson and Darren Shea.

The young Mid Canterbury talent could be in worse hands.

A hectic training programme during the month leading up to the March 5-8 nationals included numerous trips to Christchurch and regular speedwork and motor pacing and expanded to two training sessions a day.

As a result it instilled confidence in Lowry as she gunned for success at the nationals championships.

With 6am breakfasts, monitoring her nutrition and eating well was also key, Lowry said.

“I just had to keep healthy, make sure I had enough energy.”

It comes to the finer details when you are taking on the best around the country.

Although she was now donning the red and black of Canterbury and making waves on the track, Lowry first started on the road at the Tinwald Cycling Club about five years ago.

Although she had proven to be a dynamo within the velodrome, she is also a proven star on the road.

Two years ago, she won the Cycling NZ Schools Under-15 South Island Road Championships.

Road cycling now serves as preparation for the track season which is scheduled to kick off in October.

Moving forward, being integrated into the Cycling NZ High Performance Hub remained an aspiration to foster her abilities.

Following the nationals, Lowry has spent three weeks off the bike.

Of course with winter cycling dates facing postponements or possible cancellations due to the Covid-19 lockdown, Lowry’s winter, like everyone else’s, is up in the air.

In the interim, she is focusing on her fitness at home.

By Adam Burns © The Ashburton Guardian - 2 April 2020

Annelise Diamond was leading the Kiwi OE dream working at Walt Disney World until earlier this month. Photo supplied.Ashburton’s Annelise Diamond is playing a waiting game in America as she works out when she might be able to get home.

The 21-year-old was caught out this month as countries around the world rapidly responded to Covid-19 erupting into a deadly pandemic.

Diamond had been living the Kiwi OE dream, working as a character performer in the entertainment department at Walt Disney World, Florida.

It was a job she loved, getting to hang out with the likes of Mickey Mouse and Goofy, making the dreams of children and adults alike come true as they interacted with the characters they idolised.

That was until March 14, when she and fellow workers got an email saying the parks were closing.

There had been whispers just an hour or so prior, but Diamond was not sure whether to believe them.

She was among about 8000 workers from overseas and interstate on an internship-style “college programme” who got the email, giving them just two days’ notice. They would then have a further two days to get out of their accommodation complexes provided as part of the programme.

“My whole world came crashing down,” she said.

Diamond considered coming home, but with not enough funds to immediately book an airfare and a fear she could somehow have picked up the virus from her job and then be a risk to others, she decided to stay put for at least a few days.

But then New Zealand shut its borders, making Diamond one of what is believed to be thousands of Kiwis sheltering overseas.

She plans to come home as soon as she can, but in the meantime she is grateful to be staying with boyfriend James and his family in Kentucky.

She has study planned for the University of Canterbury beginning in July, undertaking a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Music and Maori and minoring in history.

If she cannot get back prior to that, she hopes she can study long-distance.

Diamond is in America on a J1 cultural exchange visa, which means she can work while reporting on a cultural activity she undertakes.

But losing her job means she has lost her J1 status, and legally she shoud only be in the country for 30 days from when she was last working.

She has been in touch with consulate and immigration departments and is in the process of applying for an extension to her visa, knowing she will not be able to leave the country even if she doesn’t get it.

James is also planning on studying in New Zealand, and the couple hope they can somehow get back here by July.

“Once we get into New Zealand we are a hell of a lot safer than we are here,” Diamond said.

She said it was frustrating in America where the country had not taken the strong leadership which had been shown in New Zealand.

The way president Donald Trump had handled the pandemic crisis made her feel unsafe, although the states, of which Kentucky was one of the better ones, were doing what they could.

The advice was to stay at home if you can and practise social distancing.

“Which nobody is doing,” she said.

She had recently gone to the hardware store to buy paint brushes for painting a room. However, only a handful of people there in the checkout queue were obeying signs to stand two metres apart.

The tough lockdown procedures introduced in New Zealand were a far more effective way to deal with it.

“It’s made me so proud to be where I’m from,” she said.

By Susan Sandys © The Ashburton Guardian - 31 March 2020