A Winton family has hit on its hands after putting together a music video of how their family is coping with the Alert Level 4 COVID-19 lockdown.

Receiving more than 150,000 internet hits so far, the video, COVID-19 rap Kiwi Style, shows how the community should be protecting itself, while putting a lighter spin on things and putting a bit of humour into the nation’s current lockdown. 

Aptly set to the music and lyrics of “You Can’t Touch This”, with a few lyrical deviations to suit, the family’s video features Steve, Helen and daughters Kendra and Brilea Wadsworth, with an across-the-fence cameo appearance by their neighbour, around and about their home in Winton, Southland.

Mr Wadsworth, who is the principal of Winton Primary School, said the video was a personal family effort.

“Four weeks is a long time to be in a Lockdown bubble so we put our minds and skills together. A bit of light-heartedness, lots of giggles to put some fun into it, taking us six days from start to finish. We put the video on Facebook, my personal page and Winton Primary School’s sites.

“My sister-in-law, Lisa Wadsworth from Gore, challenged us as a family to put a video together after watching the Wellington family’s video on Facebook “Lockdown Boogie”. I put it to the family and, with a bit of resistance from my wife Helen, we went for it.”  

Daughter Kendra, 19 – a student at Ara Broadcasting School in Christchurch, but at home in Winton for the lockdown – was a dance instructor teaching ballet, jazz and contemporary dance before leaving to take up her studies in Christchurch.

Sixteen-year-old Brilea is a Central Southland College student who does hip-hop dance and is currently a member of her college hip-hop group.

“Both of our girls have been leaning some form of dancing most of their lives. Kendra and Brilea were our dance choreographers and Kendra spent hours editing the video before she got the end result that we were all happy with,” Mr Wadsworth said.

“The response has been amazing with lots of sharing, lot of favourable comments, including some saying that there was no way that their families would be able to do what we have.”

With Winton Primary School, along with the rest of New Zealand’s primary schools, starting its distance learning programme today, Mr Wadsworth will be in front of the camera again in a more serious role.

“Basically, we will be communicating with our students from our homes, using Apps like See-saw, Google Classroom and Zoom, which will let our teachers talk face to face to their students.”

Teachers had been collaborating for some time and had been phoning families to inform them of how it is going to work.

“I think ‘Learning from Home’ is going to be a huge learning curve in the education sector for all concerned,” Mr Wadsworth said.

Winton Primary had given out 45 school laptops to their students before the lockdown started in preparation for the distance learning programme, he said.