NSW schools to be marked on Covid risk after Sydney outbreak

It may not be business-as-usual for students and teachers when NSW schools re-open.

Schools will be rated between one and four in terms of the risk of students contracting Covid as part of a plan expected to be announced on Wednesday.

Under the proposal, school regions ranked Level 1 can operate as business-as-usual and those given a Level 4 rating will need to have all students learning from home.

The plan was outlined in an email sent to schools from Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney.

“This risk based model contemplates a sliding scale where schools are categorised on a scale from one to four; Level 1 being normal operations and Level 4 being remote learning,” he wrote.

Mr McInerney declined to comment on Monday but chief executive of the Association of Independent Schools NSW, Geoff Newcombe, said the ratings would be based on whether the school was in or outside metropolitan Sydney.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell was hopeful schools would reopen next week.

“NSW Health and the Department of Education are currently working on a number of contingency plans to achieve this,” she said.

Davina Zanet with her children Lilly, 10, Leo, 5, and Ruby, 8, at home in South Coogee. Picture: Justin Lloyd

South Coogee mum Davina Zanet endorsed the plan to rank schools or close them completely when required after seeing how fast the virus spread among eastern suburbs children at the end of last term.

“It’s different this time around, because the Delta variant is getting into the schools, there are more cases in schools around us,” she said.

She faces homeschooling her daughters Ruby, 8, and Lilly, 10, who attend St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Maroubra, while also looking after her son Leo, 5.

“It is hard because I have different aged girls in different years and I have a toddler as well and I work from home,” she said.