We’re in Blogdown
As far as our daily lives are concerned, many of us have been in virtual territory for the past couple of weeks. The start of the Summer Term will be a virtual start and it is fair to say that the Easter break felt more like a virtual break than a real one. We didn’t really go on holiday, we didn’t really enjoy a break and many of us didn’t really celebrate Easter. We might have become spirits in the virtual world.
Then again, many of us have found ways to connect again. Even though many of us have been confined to our houses and gardens, and even though our physical worlds have significantly decreased in size; we have found ways to expand our worlds.
Many of us have connected in different ways, with different people and to different insights. While many people have certainly connected to Netflix and YouTube, we have also found ways to learn new skills, take up new hobbies and do things we always said we never had time for.
We wanted to find out what some of our teachers and other staff have been up to in acquiring new skills and insights. We were sure there were some other types of lessons to learn and perhaps even some ideas to pinch.
Not just a maths wiz, Mrs Colbourne has been crocheting garlands and she inspired plenty of people too. They have got in touch with her to ask for advice and teach them how to crochet. Rather than share Mrs Colbourne’s phone number, we thought we’d leave this share right here…
Mrs Eves has started puppy training and shared a lovely video with us. There are no puppy classes currently but we have plenty of time to spend with our pawtastic friends, so make the most of it.
Ms Lavelle has started what can only be described as a home bakery. There is no way we could possibly share every image of all the bread, biscuits, cakes and scones that Ms Lavelle has baked and unfortunately, lockdown prevents us from sampling these items as well.
The exploits of Mr Cowlishaw and Mr Jackson have been well-documented over the past two weeks but Mr Jackson was kind enough to supply us with the backstory and their own experiences of the Lockdown Marathon. This is his account:
“It was 8am and the boarders at Weaponness were still asleep. I was reading the news and, as a committed runner, read a story that distressed me greatly. The government may consider banning exercise as a reasonable reason to go outside.. The one thing that has kept me sane throughout this lockdown has been my 30 minute’s run a couple of times a week. I had resigned myself to the fact that I might end up running around the boarding house. I decided that I would measure the distance of the perimeter.
The result was 150 meters. In the quiet of the house, I worked out how many laps I would need to do to run my usual 5km run and then the idea came. How many laps, I wondered, would it take to complete a marathon. The answer was 283. Then Lewis Colishaw emerged from his room and I shared my findings with him. Within half an hour a simple maths exercise had become a definite plan and, within an hour, the event was publicised. A charity was decided upon by Lewis as, given his grandma is in a position shared by many older members of our society, we decided to support Age UK. We were committed!
Lewis, the guru of social media that he is, turned a simple personal challenge into a much bigger scheme.The next few days were, in the scheme present events, exciting. We watched as our colleagues, parents, boarders and pupils started to donate. We reached our original £1,000 target within 48 hours. There was just one problem. We had to run 26 miles round and round a building for several hours.
The day came. Mentally, I had split the race up into 8 and a bit normal runs. That doesn’t seem too bad. However, and the mathematicians will understand this, the difficulty as the race progressed was logarithmic. First 10km – easy, 2nd 10km tricky, 3rd 10km very hard, 4th 10km – absolute agony!
However, the feeling when we had completed this challenge was electric and we are so proud of our colleagues, parents, pupils and other members of the Scarborough College community. It shows that, even in the darkest times, our school is a beacon of kindness and hope that shines brightly for all to see.”
Mr Denton and his family have seen a return to traditional pastimes. With Social Media accounts deactivated; board games and reading have trumped computers. The Denton family have also gone cycling a lot, started to grow their own fruit and veg and honing their outdoor skills. Mr Denton’s advice during lockdown is to read the news once a day and then never to look at it again!
Mrs Lay used the lockdown to rescue an old English sheepdog from Romania. This stray was quite literally on death row and Mrs Lay is now trying to rehabilitate this wonderful Old English Sheepdog. Nolan, who was rescued through an organisation called The Biggies League, is still very anxious and nervous towards people but Mrs Lay sees improvements every day. Nolas has even started venturing into the garden.
Dr Kehrli started learning macrame over Easter. On the picture you can see Dr Kehrli’s first achievement, though as there’s a distinct lack of plants to purchase, her parsley plant was having to do the honours for a photo.
Mrs Walsh has come to realise just how important it is to like the people you live in lockdown with. Even with someone you get on with, lockdown is difficult. Perhaps it should be something to consider when one settles down with a partner: ‘Could I cope with him/her during a lockdown?’ Should it become part of the marriage vows? ‘For richer or for poorer. In Lockdown and beyond…’
Mrs Walsh has had a lot of support from the fact that she has a dog. The dog makes us get out of the house and dogs all over the world must be loving lockdown. Their owners home all the time and everyone fighting over who gets to take them out for walks. It’s bliss. Although Mrs Walsh hasn’t had time to take up any new hobbies, she has been rediscovering the joy of board games such as Mastermind and Monopoly. And as someone who always reads books, Mrs Walsh has done some writing every day and there’s always something to do!
Finally, Mr and Mrs Emmett are enjoying baking with the children, gardening and taking up well over 25 sports. The children still prefer blowing bubbles in spite of Mr Emmett’s best attempts at introducing cricket and hockey.
Mr Emmett’s insights are just how much he has come to miss people. Being among his colleagues, the children and being closer than two metres is something much needed. Aside from missing all those people and his family, Mr Emmett has also come to realise how much he misses sports.
We’d love to hear your lockdown hobbies, skills and insights. Share them by posting them on your Social Media and mentioning ScarboroughCollege.
