QM House Lockdown

When the snap lockdown was announced in Term 3, most students were quick to venture home and spend lockdown with their families. This wasn’t the case for a handful of QMC’s boarding students, who were required to form their own bubble at QM House for a variety of reasons. Some of those students have kindly shared their experiences of being locked down at school.

When we were in lockdown, I got to know more people in the dorm because we lived like a family. We did a lot of fun activities together, including badminton matches, night parties, making banana sundaes, and even getting vaccinated together. We also ate countless delicious dishes from the chef. Being far away from my family is very difficult in this COVID-19 situation but being in QM House made me feel like I was with family.

Sarocha Ruangsuvan, Year 10

17 August was when it all began, after one Delta case was found in Auckland. Everyone was trying to get the first available flight home. Except for all the international students who were known as the Lockdown Gang. Of course, this was a really hard time, but the QM House staff made everything better. We loved the QMH Nightclub, where we had Becky’s Bar (non-alcoholic drinks), Bronwyn was the Bouncer, and Tasha was the DJ (aka DJ Wypych). We had lots of fun that night, as everyone gathered around and sang to the songs they love.

Amy Zhao, Year 10

During the 2021 lockdown, I was one of the thirteen boarders in the QM House bubble. I found it fun and a better way to ease into boarding. After my first three weeks in a full house, lockdown sent more than half of the boarding house away. This made it less intimidating, and I was able to make friends and settle in. The food was really good during the lockdown, and we got dessert every night! The boarding house staff were also very fun. We had to start online classes and continue them for three weeks. During the breaks, such as lunch, some of the borders would dance together or go outside and climb on the playground. Thankfully, a system was created where if we needed any essentials, we wrote down what we needed, and one of the boarding house members would go to New World and get it. This was so we were COVIDconscious and limited the amount of exposure outside our bubble. Thank you to the boarding house for keeping all of us safe during these stressful times.

Sascha Murphy-Boyes, Year 11

Lockdown in the boarding house was quite an interesting experience and maybe even helpful for me, who’s new, to connect with a few more people who I, otherwise, might not have found myself talking to. When Alert Level 4 was announced, more than half of the boarders left the very same night so that they could spend lockdown at home. Girls who normally wouldn’t interact as often now got the chance to get to know each other better!

Charlize Murphy-Boyes, Year 10

I really enjoyed this lockdown, and we had lots of activities, including playing badminton in the gym, walking in the park, and having QM House parties, where we also made dessert. I enjoyed the party night most of all, it was a fantastic night. Although it was a lockdown, I was still very happy. The boarding house is like home, and I felt relaxed and warm. I am thankful to our boarding house staff for always taking care of us and accompanying us. I’m very grateful to them for making lockdown a happy time. That was a really good experience.

Lili Handai, Year 12