EARLIER this week, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Minister for Education James Merlino announced a plan to help welcome students back into COVIDsafe classrooms as Term 1 gets under way.
Under the plan, rapid antigen testing (RAT) for staff and students will be in place for at least the first four weeks back at school, as the Government is set to deliver more than 14 million RATs to schools and early childhood centres across the state. It is recommended that the tests are to be used before school twice a week.
Swan Hill College Principal Andrew Sartori says the RATs are a welcome addition to the COVIDsafe plan the college already has in place from last year, which includes the use of masks, hand sanitiser, and social distancing.
“I think the majority of our parents will probably use them [RATs] wisely, and I think in a lot of ways that will help with those parents that are a bit nervous because they know that there are tests getting done twice a week,” Mr Sartori said.
Swan Hill Primary School principal Hayley Doyle is also pleased to have access to RATs coming into the new school year.
“We know that it won’t completely eradicate it [COVID], but we know that it will certainly lower it if everyone is on board with that testing process,” Mrs Doyle said.
Improving ventilation in classrooms was also an important goal for the government, delivering 51,000 air purification devices to government and low-fee non-government schools, including Swan Hill College and Swan Hill Primary School.
However, Mr Sartori does still have a few worries about the possibility of teacher shortages.
“I’m not concerned about going to school. I’m a little bit concerned about if I’ve got four teachers that need to isolate for a week how we replace them.”
The Government has put measures in place should a situation like this occur, classifying education staff as critical workers, which allows asymptomatic household contacts to voluntarily continue working so long as they return daily negative rapid antigen tests.
The Government has also been able to create a pool of inactive teachers, education support staff, retired principles and administrative support staff for schools to access in order to cover any COVID-related staff shortages. Remote learning will only be considered as a localised, short-term last resort.
Swan Hill Primary School is taking extra precautions to help limit exposure should there be a COVID outbreak within the school.
“We’ll operate in workforce bubbles, so we’ll have four different staff rooms and try not to cross our staff over at any time, which means we do all of our professional learning and staff meetings via Webex,” Mrs Doyle said.
“We have separate play areas for the kids, so kids of different year levels are not crossing over, or we are certainly limiting the avenues for them to cross over and not mixing groups.”
Mrs Doyle believes while there may be some parents and students who are anxious for the return of school amid COVID, many are keen to return to some normality.
“I think the majority of parents are looking forward to the return to school after two years of lots of remote learning. I think people are generally happy that school’s returning. That’s the feel I get anyway when I’m talking to families.”
