“We are currently working out the practicalities of this and particularly the impact it will have for our staff,” principal Lisa Moloney wrote to parents.“I trust that this assurance will alleviate many concerns you or your daughter might have.”
Within the public school system,schools will not offer simultaneous online and face-to-face teaching. While principals have been given some flexibility to adjust arrangements to suit their community’s needs,the intention is to have as much face-to-face learning as possible.
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Christine del Gallo,the deputy head of the Secondary Principals Council,said at her school,that flexibility last year involved teachers live-streaming classes via Zoom to the handful of girls who were immunocompromised and had strong medical reasons to stay home.
“Our zooming at-home learning has functioned brilliantly but it needs to come to an end because students parents and teachers are worn down by it and there are emotional and mental health issues that have come into play which didn’t come into play last time,” she said.
“There’s more anxiety in both parents and students. There’s gradually less engagement from the students,less focus. Teachers,who have been working really hard,have just been so over-worked. We need to get back into schools for everyone’s mental health.”
Students are due to begin a staggered return from October 25,with the final year groups,years 3 to 5 and 7 to 10,back on November 8. However,the HSC begins on November 9 and strict social distancing requirements may force some schools to delay the return of junior year groups.
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Advice sent to principals by the NSW Education Standards Authority said there must be a minimum of 1.5 metres between students,exam group sizes should be as small as possible,and schools should “consider having other year group cohorts at home during the HSC exam period”.
This angered some principals,who argued the HSC should have begun on October 25,when year 12 was allowed on campus,but before the other year groups were allowed to return. The date of the HSC was decided by NSW Health.
Most schools would only have to ask other year groups to stay home when there are exams with big candidatures,such as English,maths and Studies of Religion for Catholic schools.
“The exams will have to spill out into other classrooms,and in rooms that are full and big there may not be room,so I’ve heard principals say they’ll have to tell certain years on certain days they’ll have to do zoom lessons,” said Ms del Gallo. “It’s very difficult timing.”
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