What will back to school look like for Australian students? - Sydney Morning Herald

What is the current state of play for students going into term two around the nation. How have the different governments come to their decisions?

It's been one of the most heated points of debate about how we deal with this pandemic: should Australia's nearly 4 million schoolchildren be showing up to school? The federal government wants schools, including the independents, to stay open but states and territories, and some schools, are going their own way.

The federal government has no direct influence on rules for schools but Prime Minister Scott Morrison has sought to apply pressure to state governments by appealing directly to the public about keeping schools open.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy told a Senate estimates hearing last week that schools are safe places and should reopen. “The proportion of children [infected] is very small,” he said. “We all believe that schools are a safe environment to open.”

So what is the current state of play for term two around the nation? How have the different governments come to their decisions? What kind of controversies have come up along the way?

Back to school or not depends on what state or territory you live in.Credit:Getty Images

A gradual restart in NSW

NSW public school students will continue to learn from home for the first two weeks of term two, which begins on April 29, but schools remain open to supervise kids of essential workers or those who need to attend. Students will return to school in person for one day a week from May 11 and attendance will be ramped up gradually over the rest of the term. Principals are asked to have no more than 25 per cent of students on campus each day during the staggered return, but they can decide how to organise who attends: it could be based on sporting houses or the alphabet. Class sizes will be smaller to allow social distancing, and students will do the same work whether at school or home.

But Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s plan for a staggered return to school has created division, particularly with the teacher’s union. The NSW Teacher’s Federation advocated for kindergarten and year 12 to return to school full-time first: a path many private and Catholic schools will take. Private schools can choose their own plan for resuming schooling; one Hunter Valley school expects 900 kids on campus for face-to-face classes from the beginning of term.

This has led to concern that year 12 students in the public system will be worse off than their private school counterparts, and the Labor opposition has urged the Premier to let year 12 back full-time. The state government follows medical advice from NSW Health, which has maintained that schools can remain open on medical grounds. A report commissioned by the state’s health and education departments shows there has been an “extraordinarily low rate of transmission” of coronavirus in NSW schools. Health Minister Brad Hazzard has said students would be fine to attend five days per week under medical advice, but that a staged transition was about giving parents confidence their children would be safe.

Mostly no, for now, in Victoria

Victoria has drawn heat from the Morrison government over its decision to deploy remote learning for all of term two, which will lump most parents with the work/home school juggle until the end of June. Schools are open but only for the children of essential workers or those who are vulnerable at home.

The Commonwealth wants all children back in school by the end of May, including in Victoria, and that may yet happen, although certainly not before the state of emergency is lifted on May 11.

Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton, who has the job of making the call on when Victorian schools will reopen for all students, said he is “open to opening schools before the end of term two” if the evidence supports the decision.

But he doesn’t believe it does – yet.

“We know that introduction of the virus has happened with adults coming to school, so that is a concern,” he said on April 27. “We also don’t know the extent to which kids might have asymptomatic illness and be transmitting it to each other. It is comforting that kids don’t get, by and large, serious illness, but that’s not the same question."

With more than 100,000 Victorians to be tested for COVID-19, Premier Daniel Andrews says the results of the “blitz” will be used to decide on the potential lifting of lockdown restrictions, including those on schools.

The federal government would prefer schools were open again.Credit:Getty Images

Concern over drop-offs, pick-ups and teachers in Queensland

Queensland schools – public, independent and Catholic – are open for vulnerable children and students whose parents are considered essential workers such as police, emergency service personnel and healthcare workers. In the week starting April 20, 13 per cent of students walked through school gates statewide (12 per cent on Mondays and Fridays).

Despite national health advice that physical distancing measures were not "appropriate or practical" in schools, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk stressed she was following the advice of Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young. “There is concern about teachers in their staffrooms, and also the before [school] pick-up and after [school] pick-up," she said. “We are not going to rush this, we are going to get this right and I will not put the lives of our teachers, principals, school community, parents and children at risk. We will take a measured response to this."

The school situation will be reviewed on May 15, taking into account results from the first stage of easing restrictions from midnight on Friday, May 1. Queenslanders can enjoy some relief from stay-at-home rules and will be allowed to go for drives; ride or pilot a motorbike, jetski or boat for pleasure; have a picnic; visit a national park; and shop for non-essential items – so long as social distancing is maintained, they remain within 50 kilometres of home and outings are limited to members of the same household or an individual and one friend.

Full-page messaging in WA

All West Australian students are encouraged to return to a physical classroom on April 29, with remote learning packages available for children whose parents choose to keep them home. The return to schools comes after the state government "cautiously" lifted indoor and outdoor gathering restrictions from two people to 10 on April 27, with the 1.5 metre social distancing rule still in place.

Premier Mark McGowan announced on April 17 that parents and carers had the choice of how their children would be taught going into term two, which ignited plenty of debate within school communities.

“The latest national medical advice confirms that the four-square-metre rule and the 1.5-metre distancing between students during classroom activities is not required,” he said in a full-page newspaper advertisement after Western Australia’s leading teachers’ union encouraged parents to keep their children home from school.

“With our increased testing and low rates of infection, we are confident that WA school staff and children physically attending school are not at an increased risk of COVID-19,” the Premier said.

Private and independent schools were left to determine their own approach, but when news came out that some were going against the national medical advice and continuing remote learning without face-to-face lessons across most year groups, the Premier became infuriated and encouraged parents at those schools to demand a fee reduction.

Remote learning mostly the go in Tasmania

Tasmanian students return to school on April 28 for children of essential workers but, as with Victoria, most students are expected to learn remotely, meaning most parents must grapple with the demands of working from home and supervising their children’s education.

“Where possible, students will continue to learn at home, supported by parents and carers, with teachers leading this learning,” Tasmania’s Department of Education said.

Schools will be open for students who cannot learn from home. The exception is in the state’s north-west, where schools will remain closed until May 4 as part of a wider lockdown in that part of the state – more than half of Tasmania’s 210 cases are clustered in the region.

Borders shut, classrooms open in South Australia

South Australia has shut its borders but will open its schools and is encouraging all students to go to school this week.

“Learning is best done at school in a classroom with teachers,” the state’s education department says.

Remote learning will be made available to students whose parents choose to keep them at home for health reasons. South Australia’s Chief Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier said families should feel comfortable and safe about sending their children to school given the very low levels of COVID-19 in the state.

“Even when we had higher rates of disease in South Australia, only 2 per cent of cases were school students, all of whom had mild illness and have fully recovered,” she said.

Back at school but no boarding in the Northern Territory

Public schools in the Northern Territory are open and all students have been expected to physically attend since the first day of term two on April 20.

Families can opt to keep their children home but they must tell their school and take responsibility for their children’s learning. NT government decisions are based on the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee’s advice that schools are safe.

Most of about 1000 staff in NT remote schools stayed within communities over the Easter break, where biosecurity area restrictions are in place to prevent coronavirus transmission to vulnerable people. The government gave a bonus package to those staff members, which included a $500 retention payment and additional day of leave.

But residential boarding school facilities in the NT are still closed. Students who have returned to a NT community from boarding schools within the territory or interstate are allowed to attend their area’s local government school for supervision, internet and resources, so long as staffing is available. Students will follow the learning program of the school they are enrolled in.

Closed in the ACT

School campuses in the ACT are closed, with students expected to learn from home when term two resumes on Tuesday, April 28. Nine schools remain open as “safe and supervised” sites in each Canberra region, to accommodate the 2633 students who have registered for face-to-face learning.

ACT Education Directorate teachers and staff will supervise those students and help them follow programs set by their teacher. But teachers and staff cannot be compelled to attend school sites, after the ACT education union branch struck a deal with the education directorate last month.

At this stage, there is no date for when face-to-face teaching will resume in the ACT. Education Minister Yvette Berry said she would spend the early part of term two considering what it might look like. "This will happen whilst learning from the work of other states and territories, our own local circumstances [and] expert health advice," Ms Berry said.

An education directorate spokeswoman said the ACT government accepts national health advice that schools remain safe for students. “The government’s approach to delivering school education balances a range of factors including the health advice, but also practicalities of administering school education,” the spokeswoman said.

In the meantime, the ACT government has partnered with Telstra to connect public school families to home internet for free, to ensure children can participate in remote learning. About 450 families have so far registered for the service.

The ACT offers free universal access to Chromebooks for years 4 to 12, which means the state is “well placed to move to online learning”, the spokeswoman said. Most Catholic and independent schools will also start the term with remote learning.

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2020-04-27 14:17:15Z
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