Sydney primary schools start holidays early to avoid Covid isolation

Parents of primary school students across NSW have been given an extraordinary option aimed at saving Christmas.

Thousands of Catholic primary school students in Sydney were given the option to begin their holidays last Friday instead of this week in an effort to save unvaccinated children from being forced into isolation if they caught Covid.

But their public school peers must attend school until their last day on Thursday.

Principals’ Association Executive of the Parramatta Diocese, Steven Jones, was one of the educators who elected to allow families at his school to end classes last Friday instead of Wednesday.

As the principal of St Patrick’s Primary School at Guildford, in the Covid-ravaged Cumberland local government area, he did not want to see families miss out on Christmas celebrations, which would have been likely if they tested positive and went into 14 days isolation.

Children under 12 cannot be vaccinated and the decision comes as Covid cases in NSW climbed to 804 on Tuesday.

It comes as around 7000 students at NSW state schools were also expected to get an early mark for Christmas with their schools deemed non-operational on December 15.

The following schools all had a Covid case as part of the “school community”.

The schools closed are: Bardia Public School, Canley Vale Public School, Corowa Public School, Casuarina School, Engadine Public School, Hampden Park Public School, Lambton High School, Lakemba Public School, Macksville High School, Newcastle High School, Pendle Hill High School and Smithfield Public School.

Schools break up this week and with “non-operational” schools typically closed for a couple of days for cleaning it is unlikely pupils will return before the break.

At St Patrick’s Primary the final events for the year, including a Mass and Year 6 graduation, were pushed forward.

“If we had a case in this school it would result in our children being in isolation on Christmas day and I just couldn’t put my families into that after what we went through,’’ Mr Jones said.

“They’ve all missed their families in lockdown, particularly in our lockdown LGA.’’

The offer was snapped up quickly — about 95 per cent of families, or about 25 of the 400 students, are at school this week.

Online learning was not compulsory and Mr Jones was adamant “particularly after what they’ve been through in 2021”, a three-day head start could also protect the elderly and vulnerable in the community.

“It’s been a challenging time,’’ he said.

“I just couldn’t do that to my families and parent community … for the sake of three days. It’s three days at the end of the year in the grand scheme of things, it’s far more important to have Christmas with their extended families.

“I think we all need to get to Christmas day and celebrate and hope the year ahead is better but also do it knowing our children are safe.

“I can’t control the outside of the school but I can control the inside of the school to a point.’’

Mr Jones said several schools in the Parramatta and Sydney dioceses recorded a significant drop in student numbers this week.

However, public school students will see out the rest of the school year on Thursday.

A NSW Education Department spokesman said all schools remained open during the final week of term.

“Learning from home is not in place for students unless they are a Covid case or self-isolating as a close contact of a confirmed Covid case,’’ he said.

“We urge all students and parents to check for symptoms and stay home if they have the mildest of symptoms to protect the school and general community.

“We have worked very hard to ensure schools are Covid safe and our cohorting approach to confirmed Covid cases has enabled us to keep schools operational with just the close contact cohort needing to test and then use rapid antigen home testing to return to school.”

ParraParents co-founder Kellie Darley, whose two children attend a public school, said: “I think people would prefer to have the option but now I’m just focused on wanting to keep life normal rather than reverting back.’’

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