SA schools extend Easter holiday for students so teachers can learn how to work in the future
SA schools will close early for students but teachers are knuckling down to create new ways to try to keep the education system running as the world shelters from coronavirus.
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Students will go on holiday four days early to give teachers a break from classrooms to prepare for a completely different way of running schools.
When Term 2 resumes, schools will have changed, including some teachers working from home and delivering lessons via online platforms.
Plympton International College year 8s Anu and Hayley had a glimpse of the new way yesterday, with teacher Andrew Charlton instructing students in a virtual classroom.
Announcing the changes, Education Minister John Gardner said schools would be kept open to “supervise” students on campus but classes would be delivered simultaneously to students in school and at home.
“It won’t be a traditional classroom environment,” he said.
“Some of the teachers will be doing their instruction working from home, some of them will be on the school site.”
Easter holidays will begin at the end of next week for students with the four days from Monday April 6 to Thursday classified as pupil-free days.
Teachers will be required to work, familiarising themselves with resources for remote learning and setting up systems for the new way of delivering lessons.
Mr Charlton, who is Plympton’s STEM co-ordinator, was happy with his trial run with students able to talk or type questions and answers.
“There was a bit of a lag time and it’s not as ideal as being in the class because you can miss some of the cues,” he said.
“But the students were really engaged in the topic.”
Anu and Hayley both said the lesson “was good” but Anu added she preferred being at school because there were fewer distractions than at home.
Most Catholic and independent schools will adopt the same pupil-free days.
“Independent schools are not compelled to do so,” Association of Independent Schools of SA chief executive Carolyn Grantskalns said, with a final decision being up to each school.
Some independent schools, especially those with boarders, had already moved to an online delivery model or were trialling it, she said — and would likely share knowledge from their experiences.
“We work very closely across the three sectors (public, independent and Catholic), it’s one of the really good things about SA,” she said.
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Catholic Education SA assistant director Bruno Vieceli said his sector was “preparing for a different way of being a school”.
“Many schools have already been working on this for weeks and the four pupil-free days are a wonderful resource for our teachers to continue that work,” he said.
Australian Education Union SA president Lara Golding welcomed the provision for teachers to be able to work from home but wanted consideration of a broader approach than only those who could show an age or health-related vulnerability.
“However, education staff are concerned about their health and safety now,” she said.
“The pupil-free period should start immediately.”
Opposition Education spokeswoman Susan Close said the Government was sending “confusing mixed messages” to parents.
Mr Gardner also flagged the Education Department will assist parents in the Easter holidays, including the pupil-free period, by accommodating students at school.
Details were still being worked out but the holidays would very different with no cinemas, sports events or other traditional leisure activity for young people.
“Parents do need to be thinking now about how they’re going to supervise their children in that home environment during the school holidays,” Mr Gardner said.
“Our schools and education system will have to be part of that solution.”
Mr Gardner stopped sort of encouraging parents to keep children at home but said everything possible was being done to support parents exercising that choice.
The decision on schools follows TAFE SA yesterday announcing it would stop teaching after tomorrow with no lessons from Monday March 30 until Term 2 starts.
“This additional non-teaching time will allow our staff to work on new delivery methods and models,” TAFE SA chief executive David Coltman said.
