Victorian students back to school in two weeks as AFL prepares for season reboot
Victorians kids’ return to the classroom could be almost imminent, the Sunday Herald Sun can reveal. It comes as the AFL is also set to resume as early as June 11. Here’s which students will go back to school first.
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Students will head back to Victorian classrooms in two weeks.
The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal classes will resume in the last week of May, in a major boost for families.
Years 11, 12, preps and grade 1 will be among the first allowed to get back to schools.
The announcement is expected early this week with Premier Daniel Andrews also set to announce as soon as tomorrow that Victorians will be able to gather in groups of up to 10 — in homes and outside.
A time frame for a resumption of intrastate travel is also expected.
The easing of coronavirus lockdown laws comes as the Sunday Herald Sun can also reveal the AFL season is now set to return as early as June 11.
Players are expected to start training in groups of 10 this week.
The State Government is sanctioning older grades returning to school to help reduce the impact of home learning on the vital final years of education, and the youngest students would be sent back to free parents to return to work and help kickstart the economy.
Other grades will then be progressively allowed to return to school.
Some schools have already begun notifying parents to prepare for their children to resume attending campuses, which would include strict new rules on drop-offs and pick-ups to minimise risk of virus spread between parents; temperature checks of students and teachers; any student or teacher with flu like symptoms ordered to stay home; minimal contact between teachers; and increased use of sanitiser by students and children.
Government schools have already shipped in extra sanitiser supplies.
Break times could be staggered to avoid mass groupings of students, while assemblies and other large gatherings are expected to be cancelled.
Unions are calling for all staff to have access to coronavirus testing, while medically vulnerable teachers are expected to be placed in non-classroom roles.
The plan comes as new figures show 145,000 Victorians have been tested for COVID-19 as part of a massive program, with more than 1400 cases confirmed statewide.
INFECTED CEDAR MEATS WORKERS DIDN’T USE SUPPLIED FACE MASKS
Thousands of protective face masks for workers at coronavirus hotspot Cedar Meats were never used.
The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal 2000 masks were never worn by any of the 350 staff at the abattoir in Brooklyn, in Melbourne’s west.
The masks were bought from an Australia-based red meat dealer Eddie Zhi – who arranged for a shipment of meat to be taken from Cedar to Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Mr Zhi contacted a lot of meat processing plants and offered face masks. Cedar Meats purchased 2000,” Tony Kairouz, the general manager of Cedar Meats, said.
Asked what happened to them he said: “The face masks haven’t been used.”
The abattoir is now connected to 75 coronavirus cases and has been labelled ‘Victoria’s Ruby Princess’ — the cruise ship that docked in NSW and sparked hundreds of COVID-19 cases.
Cedar Meats is currently closed.
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