A collection of student work from Term II and Term III, 2020.
You can find more here in the Term III edition of Et Al, the Alia College newsletter.
A day in the lockdown life
In Junior English, students were tasked with keeping a detailed diary for seven days of their lockdown. Some excerpts of their writing follow.
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When the disease first surfaced and places like China and Italy were in lockdown was as real as it got for me, I was having a conversation with everyone in homeroom about it and everyone’s theories. We all laughed at Bob when he was telling us from the start of the year to work hard while we were still at school because eventually we would all be online so we all had to get lots of maths done whilst we were still at school.
I’m not sure about others but I just thought everyone would just have to do a 2 week quarantine period and then things would go back to normal, oh how wrong I was. Talking about what platforms everyone felt comfortable using if we were to hold classes online in wholeschool meeting felt like a bit of a bore and a waste of time. So little is known about this virus that rules and regulations have been being adjusted so frequently as we learn more about it.
We started online learning and lots of people were keen. I along with many others were super motivated and found myself attending more classes than when we were on campus. However, the novelty started to fade along with motivation. I found myself attending fewer and fewer classes by the day and my motivation was at an all time low. I was just doing nothing but I was extremely bored so I forced myself to go to classes as that was the only thing there was really to do besides seeing Pearl, my horse.
About a month into the lockdown we were given a date to return back to school, the 9th of June. It was nice being back at school even if it wasn’t for long, but at least i saw BellaDonna, because she’s the best dog. There was a glimmer of hope returning to school with the thought that by the start of term 3 it would be like it was pre-pandemic. I was also preparing Pearl for comps to go back and get her fitness up so we could finally have our first eventing start.
Then the numbers started increasing heaps by the day and the idea of going back to school was fading fast. On top of that, Pearl had an abscess so the holidays were extremely boring and felt like they were dragging on forever. At home we were renewing passports in the hope to be able to go to Sri Lanka early 2021 to celebrate my brother’s wedding, but the idea of that is deteriorating fast.
— Kelly (Yr 8)
The following diary excerpts are from others in the Junior English class:
Wednesday, 19th of August, 2020
I woke up rather early yesterday, wiping the dried tears from my eyes, I sat down to eat breakfast. The most important meal of the day, which I barely eat. I sped through my classes until I finally got to the end of the day, the afternoon if you will. Which I spent eating s’mores (the best campfire food ever created) and watching netflix. Soon after dinner I hit the hay, smacked the sack, dropped like a log, and slept like an infantile human.
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Yesterday I woke up, wrote and drew in my book, went into homeroom where I was half asleep and not sure what I said or even if I even said anything…I was awake for period 1 english, we spoke, read and did activities on Anne Frank. In Hass period 2 we started an assignment on political parties I chose to do mine on the democrats. Next was PE I went for a walk in the park and got my mind off of a few things, listened to music, drew and wrote in my book by the lake. For X-files I finished the sketch of my piece and began the actual painting (it’s drying now) that was relaxing apart from the fact that I couldn’t make the bodies look proportionate which was frustrating. When class was over I sat in my room for a bit just reading and sitting with my thoughts, I later decided I should spend time with my family and get over my teen angst bs, even though it feels like I’m glued to them at the moment…
****
I then logged on for homeroom and got interrupted 5 minutes in as my niece was being dropped off for the day (yes it’s allowed in stage 4 it’s child minding and there was no parent able to care for her). As she entered the house she went straight to the bookshelf and found the jungle book and wanted me to read it to her so we set ourselves up on the couch and read 2 pages before she decided to move on and say hi to my dog, Arlo. So I got out whilst I could and went back to class.
Saturday, 22nd of August, 2020
I woke up in the early hours of the morning to my cat clawing my face off; after gently pushing him away, I carefully hopped down the steps of my ladder to run to the kitchen so I could have breakfast. I had crepes. Later on, I had my lunch and hung out with Nate, my brother. I had dinner at 7 pm, and dozed off, hit the hay, dropped like dog and slept like a log, at 9 pm
****
I set out on a short stroll around the neighbourhood, whilst I was out I picked up various flowers with the plan of making a little bouquet when I got home. I dropped the majority of them and thought that a single yellow flower (I think it was a weed) and a beat up rose would just be sad so that plan flopped. I sat out the front of my house and read for a while but then lost track of that and ended up on my phone talking to my friends and watching nostalgic movies that make me miss my childhood and regret ever growing up.
****
I went home, had dinner vegetable soup again just with a few more tonnes of cheese than the last. Then we watched awful awful reality TV and lost all hope in humanity.
Senior English stream-of-consciousness
The Senior English class responded to the prompt “Isolation is when…” as a journaling task. Zoe (Yr 9) has been kind enough to share her response:
Isolation is when you are separated by a force from other people, or yourself. That force may be yourself, a law, a physical barrier, or someone telling you not to do it. You may be isolated from your friends. You may be isolated from your family. You may even be isolated from yourself. It’s when you are distanced and separated from yourself. It’s when you can’t escape or leave. It’s when you have to stay put, no matter how much you want to leave. It’s when you miss everyone but you can’t do anything about it. It’s when you are trapped in your own thoughts and memories…
It’s when you are in trouble if you go outside. It’s when you can only be within an arm’s distance from another person. It’s when you have to stay away and stay home. It’s when the only escape you have is going for a walk. It’s when the only reason you’re allowed to see your friends is in an emergency. It’s when you can’t have a big funeral. It’s when you can’t have a big wedding. It’s when you have to sit in your room and celebrate your own birthday alone…
Its when you miss your friends and would do anything for just one minute with them. It’s when you can’t run away from your thoughts because they come with you. It’s when you get in trouble if you’re too close to people. It’s when you can’t feel the touch of your best friend hugging you. It’s when you can’t feel the touch of your brother. It’s when you can’t see your family. It’s when you’re alone.
Poetry
as time comes to an end
life is left behind
death will walk his final walk
while the light is consumed by night
and the blood of man has all run dry
our hopes and dreams have all but died
the stars will shine
and the world will turn
— Declan (Yr 11)