The new mask rule: Your post-lockdown back-to-school guide

Here’s your back-to-school guide for what is allowed and what isn’t – including the new rule about masks – when students return to school on Wednesday.

Parents are being urged not to enter school grounds and high school students will have to wear masks – in a new state-first direction – when schools resume on Wednesday as South Australia comes out of its seven-day lockdown.

Whole-school assemblies and any camps and excursions will also be cancelled or postponed, the Education Department says.

At Tuesday’s press conference, Premier Steven Marshall said masks would be a “new part of the uniform for secondary school students”.

Ninety pallets of face masks were being sent to secondary schools across SA, he said.

The department sent a memo on Monday to all staff, outlining how schools will operate “for the next week or until otherwise advised”.

“Provided we don’t have any unlinked cases of Covid-19, we can expect to reopen public schools, preschools and children’s centres to all students from Wednesday 28 July, except for Gawler & District B-12 College,” it read.

“Learning at home will only be required for students that are required to self-isolate as directed by SA Health.”

Thebarton Senior College Principal Eva Kannis-Torry, assistant principal Matt Fry and wellbeing leader Libby Branford, with a delivery of masks for students. Picture: Tom Huntley

Gawler and District College remains an exposure site after a person who tested positive for Covid-19 attended the school on July 19.

Education Department chief executive Rick Persse said masks would be required for students in year 8 and above while indoors, and also when students were on school buses or public transport.

“And also for all adult visitors to schools, and we’re minimising that at the moment,” he said.

Mr Persse said teachers would also be required to wear a mask unless it’s “getting in the way of learning”.

“Exemptions will be that primary school students and students under the age of 12 will not be required to wear a mask. Any student who attends a disability setting in primary school or secondary school will not be required to wear a mask,” Mr Persse told ABC radio.

Teachers will not have to wear a mask while teaching or engaging with a student. Masks will not be required outdoors for secondary schools.

“Early childhood education and care staff and children will not be required to wear a mask.”

SA Secondary Principals Association chief executive Peter Mader said the policy had been working well in Victoria.

“We implement every day a rule around school uniforms and essentially what’s being asked of secondary school leaders and teachers … is an additional garment to be worn as part of that uniform,” he said.

Australian Education Union SA president Lara Golding said teachers would support the policy.

However, teachers were concerned that they had not been given priority for vaccinations after health and frontline service workers.

The union has written to Mr Marshall requesting teachers receive priority as they provide an essential community service.

The Education Department has also asked staff to “please continue to minimise parents, volunteers, and non-urgent service providers entering the site”.

“Any parent teacher meetings should be held online or by phone,” the memo read.

However, chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said on Tuesday there were no plans to fast-track vaccinations for teachers.

Prof Spurrier said the rules around masks would last for a “minimum of seven days” but was likely to be at least two weeks, the length of the virus’ incubation period.

“South Australians are going to have to get used to using masks in certain situations,” Prof Spurrier said.

St Brigid’s Catholic School students Harper, 11, and Charlize, 8, are among thousands of youngsters who are eager to head back to school.

“I’m excited to be going back – it’s more fun learning at school,” Charlize said.

Harper said he missed his friends “and getting to do things like my drum lessons” over the past week.

The Modbury cluster grew by one case to 19 on Monday after its oldest patient, 87, became infectious more than a week after attending a “superspreader” event at the Tenafeate Creek Winery, at Yattalunga, last Sunday.

He is in the Tom’s Court Covid facility with his wife, who is not sick.

SA Health has ordered 110 people, and some family, into medi-hotels after they were linked to the high-risk winery and The Greek on Halifax exposure sites. The youngest patient is a two-year-old boy, who is linked to the restaurant. Another two patients – the cluster’s source, a man, 87, and a woman in her 80s – are stable in the RAH.

More than 5000 people who visited high-risk sites are in quarantine. They are among 19,000 people linked to at least 80 exposure sites.

Mr Marshall told The Advertiser his government was working with the Commonwealth on a special vaccine passport that would be integrated in its mySAGov app that also houses QR codes.

“Vaccination is our pathway out of this global pandemic and we have already begun extensive planning and the first steps along that journey,” he said. “With every jab that goes into the arms of a South Australian, the safer our people, and our economy becomes.

“We are working in partnership with the Federal Government on both a national home-quarantine pilot, due to start late August, and a digital vaccine passport.

“We are exploring the potential of integrating (it) with the existing SAGov app, which South Australians have been using for Covid check-in.”

Senior government sources said no decision had been made on what restrictions would continue or what activities would be allowed.

The home-quarantine pilot will only involve vaccinated people, including Paralympians returning from Tokyo and Australian Defence Force staff.

Originally published as The new mask rule: Your post-lockdown back-to-school guide