For Melbourne teacher Siobhan Bloomfield, the government’s back-to-school plan signifies a fresh start on campus after two difficult years.
Key points:
- Victorian teachers and parents have expressed excitement over the return of face-to-face learning
- Students and teachers will be given free RATs to conduct at-home testing
- The opposition has urged the government to stick to its plan despite Omicron fears
“For us, it’s a good plan that we’re excited to put in place and we’re excited to get back on campus,” Ms Bloomfield said.
Under the new plan, students and staff will be provided with free RATs to conduct at-home testing twice weekly.
Ms Bloomfield believes the introduction of testing is a proactive step in keeping staff and students safe.
Ms Bloomfield said the school was concerned about projected staff shortages and would continue to pull staff from a pool of casual workers as needed.
Schools impacted by COVID will take a tiered approach to dealing with staff shortages, calling on casual staff and condensing classes and year levels if needed.
When necessary, schools may also call on a pool of workers comprising of retired educators, support staff and final year university students.
For teachers like Ms Bloomfield, the return of students to onsite learning will revitalise the job.
“It’s really important for us to have them back on campus and get them back not only for just their learning but also to make sure we’re supporting their social and emotional development too.”
The Australian Education Union has cautiously welcomed the plan, but president Meredith Peace said there would need to be flexibility.
“And as a consequence we will be closely monitoring the roll out of this return to school plan to make sure that guidelines are being followed, to take up any individual problems that are occurring and also monitoring things like the roll out of the RATs, the masks and the air purifier program.”
Social and emotional well-being has increasingly become a driving factor in seeing children return to face-to-face learning.
Victoria saw a spike in calls to youth mental health services such as Kids Helpline during its lockdowns.
Professor Sharon Goldfeld from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute said the population was now at a stage where the negative effect of school closures had begun to outweigh the negative effects of COVID.
“I think we are at a point in time now where we say actually the indirect effects are having more of an impact than the direct effects,” Professor Goldfeld said at the state government’s Sunday press conference.
“I think it is a really wonderful day where we can just plan and go ahead, I think that probably for the first time during the pandemic, where we know that children will go to school on day one.
“As a paediatrician, I can say I think that’s a really exciting time for parents, even with all of the anxiety of kids going to school.”
Opposition urges authorities to stay the course
The opposition has thrown its support behind the government’s back-to-school plan.
Shadow Education Minister David Hodgett said the self-testing regime will be crucial in getting children back into school.
“We’re all for free rapid testing … We need children to be in the classroom as much as they possibly can. This is a year to make a fresh start,” Mr Hodgett said.
However, Mr Hodgett called the mandating of masks for school children into question.
Under the government’s plan, children in years 3 and above will be required to wear a mask at all times in the classroom.
“Children need to be able to see and hear each other speak and the teacher speak, so I’d continue to question that mask mandate,” Mr Hodgett said.
He implored the government to remain steadfast in its commitment to keeping schools open, despite the projected difficulties with the Omicron variant.
“We don’t want to see the government fall back to their position of remote learning and closing all schools. They need to stick at this and work through it.”
Ecstatic Melbourne family still ready for ‘short-term pain’
For Melbourne parents Jen and Tim Ledwich, the remote learning of the past two years is something they’ll be happy to leave behind.
“[It’s] good to know that remote learning won’t be the first thing that we move towards,” Mr Ledwich said.
“There’ll be some backups in place with the reserve teachers and condensing classes.”
The government has dubbed a return to remote learning as an “absolute last resort” to be used on a case-by-case basis for short periods of time.
For the Ledwiches, the past two years of the pandemic have prepared them for every eventuality.
“The last couple of years we’ve gone through with the long periods of homeschooling, we’ve endured that,” Mr Ledwich said.
“So I think we’re well equipped to endure some more short-term pain if it gets to that, which I think it probably will.”
The Ledwichs are excited for school to return and are eager to take part in the self-testing regime proposed by the government.
“I was comforted that we won’t be having to source the tests ourselves,” Ms Ledwich said.
The government has promised supply will not be an issue for RATs in school, with 14 million tests due to be delivered over the next four weeks.
The only task at hand for Mr and Ms Ledwich remains administering the tests to their kids.
“I think it’ll be interesting to try and test the kids,” Ms Ledwich said.
“Not ruling out bribery at this stage.”
“It’s definitely ruled in,” Mr Ledwich said.
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