Carlingford West PS brings back at-home learning after Covid outbreak

Students at a school in Sydney’s northwest have been plunged back into learning from home after a ‘significant’ Covid outbreak among children and staff this week.

Students at a school in Sydney’s northwest have been plunged back into learning from home after a “significant” Covid outbreak among children and staff this week.

Year 3 at Carlingford West Public School was told to stay home on Wednesday and will return to school on Monday.

In a letter to parents, the school said students in all year groups may have been exposed to the positive case, and multiple students and staff couldn‘t attend school.

“Recent impacts from COVID-19 have meant that some of our students and teaching staff cannot come to school as they have tested positive for COVID-19,” Principal Andrew Williamson wrote.

A Covid outbreak has forced Carlingford West Public School to bring back at-home learning for Year 3 students. Picture: iStock 

Earlier in the week the school sent out an alert to parents imploring them to send kids to school in masks.

“We currently have high case numbers of COVID-19 among our community. It is highly recommended that your children wear a mask to school,” the letter said.

No fewer than eight Covid alert letters went out to parents at the school this week, with Mr Williamson acknowledging the “high volume of cases” in the middle years.

The Education Department said learning from home was established “in an abundance of caution”.

“Carlingford West Public School is one of the largest primary schools in the state. A significant portion of parents with students in Year 3 have reported their students have tested positive for COVID-19,” the statement said.

The department would not confirm how many cases were recorded in the school.

Carlingford West is one of the largest primary schools in the state.

It comes as a report into Covid cases at NSW schools found that the overwhelming majority were recorded in primary schools.

The research from the National Centre of Immunisation Research and Surveillance found that in Term 4 there were 1206 cases across NSW schools.

“61 per cent of school exposure events in Term 4 were in primary schools, consistent with the very low numbers of 5–11 year olds vaccinated prior to the January 2022 rollout of the vaccination program for this age group,” NCIRS director Professor Kristine Macartney said.

“School staff also represented a greater proportion of cases following the introduction of Omicron from late November, emphasising the need for booster vaccination in this group,” she said.

The resumption of face-to-face learning in term four increased the number of exposure events – from a median of 22 schools per week in term three to 87 schools per week.

This reflected student attendance rates shooting up from 10 per cent to 89 per cent.

The report also found that around half of all exposures in term four happened within the fortnight of December 4 to 17 as community transmission grew.

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