How students could return to school for term four
Hopes are rising that Victorian students may return to school in term four but things could look very different, with outdoor classes and masks being proposed in a bid to stop transmission of COVID-19.
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Hopes are rising of returning students to school for term four but it won’t look like anything we’ve seen before.
Outdoor lessons and masks could be the new norm when students head back to classrooms in a bid to reduce virus transmission.
“We can get those numbers down and have kids back to school in October,” said Prof Nancy Baxter, the head of Melbourne University’s School Of Population And Global Health.
It comes as new research shows greater precautions in schools were necessary as children were just as vulnerable to contracting and transmitting the virus as adults, despite early suggestions they were less susceptible.
University of Western Australia’s Dr Zoe Hyde said schools must not reopen while community transmission continued.
In a Medical Journal of Australia paper, she analysed global cases and found there
was a “misperception” that children were less at risk — possibly because asymptomatic kids weren’t tested and Chinese schools were closed when the virus spread.
With a current virus reproduction rate of 0.86, Prof Baxter said Victoria was “on the way there, and by the time stage four lockdown is over the numbers are going to be quite low”.
She suggested stronger measures when schools reopened, such as continuing mask-wearing for all Victorians and changing how kids learn.
Prof Baxter pointed to Denmark, which moved some school classes outside after evidence showed transmission was less likely outdoors, and required students to wash their hands every two hours.
“It’s something that definitely could be done in Australia and something that should be looked at,” she said
Prof Baxter said when Victoria eased restrictions the last time, “we opened fairly quickly” and returned to cafes, restaurants and bars.
“What we need to do is start by opening things a bit more slowly and think about where our priority is in Australia,” she said.
“If it’s a choice between (cafes and bars) and getting kids back to school, kids should be first.”
Oakleigh Grammar student Finn Shortt was hopeful of returning to school in term four, but said remote learning the second time round had been easier.
Finn and his classmates had been writing poetry about being in isolation, and of being back at school as “a way to connect back to the classroom”.
By using poetry as a creative outlet, the Year 10 Language and Literature students found they could reflect on their situation and emotions.
(Read the students’ poetry below)
“I think we took all those things for granted, but now we’re back in lockdown we’re realising how important those things are,” the 16-year-old said.
Victoria’s state of emergency has been extended to September 14, the last week of term 3, with students unlikely to return to campuses this term.
Federal Education Miniser Dan Tehan said the government wanted to “see Victorian children back in the classroom as soon as it is safe to do so”.
A department of education spokeswoman said a decision on returning to schools “will be made on the advice of the Victorian Chief Health Officer”.
OAKLEIGH GRAMMAR ISOLATION POETRY
Isolation — Must We!, a Class Poem
It spreads like paper flying in the wind,
The laughter stops, the sickness kicks in.
The abstinence of my elation,
The laughter stops, the sickness kicks in.
All of us confined, all of us alone,
Isolation is the bane of this new world for us to be alone.
Society cut down in a wave of deprecation,
Just stay away call it a day.
The laughter has stopped and the sickness kicked in,
Life, death the new norm.
This virus swells like a storm.
No words to describe the pain we are all in,
Whereabouts does this pain begin?
Wear a mask, get on with the task,
Please just do as we ask.
Stop the flow, stop the spread,
I do not wish to lie in bed, or end up dead.
Just stay away, call it a day,
Let us pray to keep the virus at bay.
Because, when the laughter stops the sickness kicks in.
“Mr Meares”, by Finn Shortt
As the hinges on the door creek, and the crooked handle turns, the excitement in my body fills for a class I do so yearn,
It’s just another maths class, just another day.
What is this elation I feel for class today?
I’m not sure why I feel like this,
I’m not quite sure at all.
I say this to myself, whilst I gaze upon the wall.
I hear laughter in the class, a laughter heard for miles,
This laughter is not alone for it is accompanied by many smiles,
What’s the reason for these smiles? The smiles of my peers.
Well I’m glad you asked? For today we have maths with Mr Meares.