Tauranga Boys' College international student Josh (Jiangyiwen) Zhang is finding doing his NCEA course work helps him have routine while stuck in China. Photo / Supplied
Tauranga Boys' College international student Josh (Jiangyiwen) Zhang is finding doing his NCEA course work helps him have routine while stuck in China. Photo / Supplied
As chaos engulfs the world, Tauranga Boys' College students stuck in China - where the coronavirus outbreak began - have gained a sense of normality in the last thing you'd expect: school.
Jiangyiwen Zhang, known to his school mates as Josh, has been in China since before the worst ofthe coronavirus outbreak in China.
And while the world keeps changing in ways we could never have imagined, the Year 13 student, who thrives on routine, is still working with the school to get his NCEA qualification.
The international student had been at Tauranga Boys' College since 2018, living with a host family.
He returned to his hometown Guangzhou, Guangdong, a southern city in China near Hong Kong, at the end of school last year.
He and four other boys from the college were unable to return to New Zealand after the Chinese New Year as a result of the coronavirus.
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When Zhang first came to New Zealand, his English was "very limited," the school's international director Annette Roff said.
"He's the sort of boy to pick up a challenge and go through with it," she said.
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They were not enrolled in Chinese schools anymore and Roff said it was crucial, both for their education and wellbeing, that they were still part of the school family.
She downloaded the Chinese app, WeChat, as other social media was not available in China and had video chats with the students to see how they were.
Tauranga Boys' College international student Josh (Jiangyiwen) Zhang is finding doing his NCEA course work helps him have routine while stuck in China. Photo / Supplied
Zhang functions with routine and while he was in Tauranga it would be to wake up at 7am, go to school, to the gym after school, and then home.
He adapted and tried to keep the same routine and worked completely online on Google Classrooms through VPN (Virtual Private Network) and sticks to the 50-minute class times.
He said it was, "pretty frustrating" not being able to come back.
He misses school and finds the isolation and managing the work and home split a challenge.
"I miss the atmosphere. I'm more relaxed and sometimes lazy at home because to me, home is a place to rest. In school and in Tauranga I find myself more motivated."
Tauranga Boys' College teacher Danielle Wilson says making sure the students in China are still learning keeps them focused and part of the school family. Photo / Andrew Warner
"I speak to them pretty often, and not being around with them makes me miss them, it is similar to me missing my family when I'm in New Zealand."
Zhang studies calculus, English, digital technology, design, music and physics.
"I often go find online resources after getting the instructions, so it has been pretty smooth."
He said while he had managed to maintain the pace of his classes, the distance meant he could not interact with his teachers and peers, and he was unable to do internal assessments.
Education is extremely important to him and his family and completing NCEA would help get him to university.
Coronavirus: what it's been like in China for Tauranga international student
The home-body wears a mask when leaving the house and washes his hands before coming home.
The usually bustling streets of his city had been quiet but had begun picking up recently again as the country gains control of the virus.
He and his family were never short on supplies and he had not noticed rationing in supermarkets.
He said prices went up in Hubei, the epicentre of Covid19 but there were no shortages except for some medical supplies.
He had been stuck at home from January 20 to the end of February and there were still recommendations to not go outside.
"Now it is safer and my mom goes out more often," he said.
"People are going back to work. There are still fewer people than before but the streets are regaining their energy."
He did not know anyone who had the virus.
Roff said she was in daily contact with the students and one of the initial challenges was getting the systems under way at the start of the school year.
Tauranga Boys' College Principal Robert Mangan said keeping in touch with the students for both their education and wellbeing. Photo / File
She said the boys expressed missing school and their classmates missed them, too.
Head of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Danielle Wilson was one of his main points of contact and continued to be impressed with the buy-in of the other teachers in making sure the boys still got their education.
She said being unable to read the body language or social cues from the students was a challenge.
"You take for granted the visual prompts you get in a classroom."
The initial set up was challenging, she said, as they had nothing to go off in terms of what to do or how to do it.
Each subject was different, some, such as design, were easier to do online than others.
But overall had been "very successful," with each success a massive victory for them all.
"They're still students here."
Principal Robert Mangan said these measures were important for the mental wellbeing of the students and offered a sense of normality in a stressful situation.
He said it showed the students they were valued in the school while they were isolated from their home in New Zealand.
