Teachers say they were blindsided by decision to delay 2022 school term, with working parents lives thrown into chaos

School communities are in turmoil, with Gold Coast principals scrambling to organise staff ahead of the two-week delay and working parents struggling with the decision.

School communities across the Gold Coast are in turmoil after teachers, principals and their union were “blindsided” by a decision to delay the start of the 2022 school year by two weeks.

Health authorities are expecting Omicron cases to peak towards the end of January and beginning of February, with students in years prep to year 10 set to return on February 7.

In addition, the end of the school year will be pushed out by a week from December 9 to 16.

The new term start applies to all Queensland primary schools, secondary schools, including Catholic and independent, and state delivered and sessional kindies. Long daycare will stay open subject to workforce capacity.

Children in Queensland have had their 2022 school term delayed by two weeks. Photo: istock

Schools will be open to vulnerable children and those of essential workers from January 24, but for supervision only, not learning. Students in years 11 and 12 will commence remote learning on 31 January 2022.

Teachers of year 11 and 12 students will be given time to prepare these lessons during the week of 24 January.

In a letter to members, the Queensland Teachers Union said it did not support the extension of the school year.

“This shortens the annual holidays of teachers and school leaders and does not account for teacher and school leader workload and wellbeing,” members were told.

“The QTU Executive will meet early this week to determine what actions to take in response to this announcement.”

One northern Gold Coast primary teacher said principals were “completely blindsided” by the Premier’s announcement on Sunday.

“There has been no consultation on a local level and we were only told when the media was on Sunday, again the education sector has been completely blindsided by the government’s decision,” she said.

Gold Coast children have been given an extra two weeks holidays because the Omicron variant wave is likely to peak at the end of January, start of February.

“We’ve already got staffing issues, with a number of teachers and aides already quitting or taking leave because of the vaccine mandate that comes into effect in a few weeks.”

The teacher, who did not want to be named, said she expected that teachers would return on January 24 and take turns supervising children and planning for their year ahead.

A public primary school teacher said she only learned about the delay in opening when the media did, with the only information sent to teachers coming from the QTU.

Schools across the city took to social media to advise parents of the changes, with most unable to provide any finer details.

The Southport School mum Deanna Nott said her 15-year-old son Alexander was “more than happy for school to be pushed back, and so are we, given the Omicron wave”.

“We would like to see online learning ready to go – it is a great back up option and keeps our kids and teachers safe.

“We have also decided to return to all online meetings for our business Wings Public Relations for now. We feel that is in the best interests of our clients.”

Only vulnerable children and children of essential workers can return to school on January 24 in Queensland.

A Nerang mother-of-four said the extension would be “extremely hard” on her family, with two adults working full time and one who couldn’t work from home.

“We’re not sure what we’ll do with the kids, as my parents are in their 70s and vulnerable and so we can’t just ask them to look after them,” said the parent, who did not want to be named.

“It wouldn’t be so bad if we could get some rapid antigen tests and I could make the kids have them before shipping off to my parents. But they are like gold at the moment, it’s ridiculous.”

Reedy Creek mum Robyn de Beer said her concerns about extending the school year related to how children would cope with the change.

“Kids are so exhausted at the end of the year that having an extra week tapped on seems pointless,” she said.

Labrador mother Lauren Paris said her school gave parents learning from home packs in the last week of school and at the high school orientation she was told to prepare for online learning and a late return.

“Due to the amount of teachers who were standing up to the mandates, they knew they wouldn’t have enough to start school back up. So we were just waiting on the new date to be announce,” she said.

Northern Gold Coast mother Ann DeLosh said she didn’t feel too strongly about the change but said her children were relieved it was a push back rather than online learning.

“I also do pilates with lots of teachers from different schools and some have been preparing since October last year for online learning, others haven’t been told anything by their principal,” she said.

Education Minister Grace Grace said the emergence of the Omicron variant had seen cases rise much more quickly than expected.

“An extensive range of resources and activities will be available to students via our comprehensive learning@home site,” she said.

“However, school staff – like the wider workforce – are likely to be significantly impacted by the number of Covid cases, so directed remote learning won’t be offered at this stage.

“Parents and carers can decide what their children do over these two weeks.

Follow @emilytoxward