2022 back to school Covid rules: How NSW education will change
After two years of lockdowns and massive upheaval for schools, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the government’s plans for students in 2022 — from mask wearing to home schooling.
NSW
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Mandatory masks are out and school excursions and sports carnivals back on amid plans to make 2022 a “disruption free” year of schooling.
After two years of lockdowns and massive upheaval for schools, parents will be delighted to hear NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell wants an end to home schooling.
And teachers and students will be happy that she said her main goal is to make masks only a recommendation for both by the time term one starts.
“We are looking at that over the Christmas break, I’m pretty keen to see masks go back to just recommended,” Ms Mitchell said.
“Mandatory mask wearing is pretty tough for our staff who of course are all fully vaccinated and of course for students, so I hope we can ease the restrictions on masks, that’s certainly my view.”
Ms Mitchell said she will be working with NSW Health and a concrete announcement is expected in January, when the full impact of the Omicron variant is known.
Bt even then mandatory mask-wearing will only be if cases remain high in certain areas with schools treated on a case-by-case basis.
Meanwhile there is a raft of good news for 2022.
From Term 1 all camps and overnight excursions are allowed for both vaccinated and unvaccinated kids.
“It’s my wish to get our schools back to running normal as much as we can within the next school year and minimising the disruption,” she said.
“I think families will find similar settings to this year in place for the beginning of next year as well but with a few other things coming back, which is exciting for the kids.”
Parents will be allowed back on school grounds for Year 7 and kindergarten orientation days next year.
Choirs and playing wind instruments will also return.
The main Covid-safe precaution that will remain is cohorting – keeping year groups as separated from each other as possible to minimise the chance of exposure between the years.
This means instead of whole schools shutting down for potentially just a single case, only the affected year will need to get tested and those students can return to school as soon as they test negative.
School shutdowns should only be if cases spread across multiple year groups or staff.
While homeschooling may be necessary for a handful of days if schools have significant outbreaks, Ms Mitchell said her goal is to make it a thing of the past.
“I don’t ever want to see widespread learning from home across the state happening again, our focus needs to be keeping our schools open, managing whatever variant we are dealing with in a Covid-safe, sensible way for our schools,” she said.
“It is my hope that 2022 is the first year in a couple of years that we don’t see disruption, that’s what I want and we’ll be working very hard to do everything that we can to make that happen.”
This year Catholic schools in NSW let students finish a week early to minimise the risk of getting Covid for Christmas.
When asked if there is a risk of parents keeping children home before big events such as birthdays and holidays, Ms Mitchell said schools are the safest places for children to be.
“We’ve got really strict Covid protocols and settings in place, we are doing additional cleaning, we are keeping children within their year groups and cohorts so children are really safe at school,” she said.
“We’ve had so much time out this year that every day really does matter.”
Kathryn Tasievski, whose son Frankie’s first two years of school were spoiled by Covid, said she hoped masks will become optional for teachers.
“Primary schoolchildren, they’re all in each other’s faces all the time and for staff it’s near impossible to not be near a student,” she said.
“It’s better for the teachers. Teachers are trying to do their job and get the kids’ attention and they’re hot and suffering with the mask on. It seems like it’s time to get back to normal life.”
The Shellharbour mum, who works in school administration, said for kids with hearing or attention difficulties, trying to connect with a teacher without seeing their face can be difficult.
Ms Tasievski said she hopes 2022 will be Frankie’s first schooling year without a lockdown, but isn’t holding her breath.
“I’ve got a really open mindset and that way it helps the kids with resilience — if you’re not setting them up for a definite answer then if something does change they won’t be totally disappointed … I’m just hoping for the best,” she said.
“I’m cautiously optimistic — fingers crossed.”
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Originally published as 2022 back to school Covid rules: How NSW education will change
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