Wesley College seeks to calm Clunes as 80 teens arrive in town after coronavirus lockdown
The annual return of city teens to country Clune may signal a return to some normality, but locals are taking no chances when it comes to keeping them away from the town’s large elderly population. Here’s how.
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Private school Wesley College has moved to allay fears among elderly in central Victorian Clunes that the 80 Year 9 students arriving this week will observe strict COVID-19 practices.
Coronavirus derailed Year 9 rites of passage, but the resurrection of the school’s sojourn to the former goldmining town sparked concern among some, worried about the highly contagious virus which hits older and immune compromised hard.
Clunes, north of Ballarat, has about 1700 residents with one in four aged 65 and over and a median age of 50.
Around 90 Year 9 students from the Wesley Glen Waverley and St Kilda campuses arrived on Sunday.
They will stay until the mid-year holidays, return home to their families and go back for several more weeks.
Students usually spend a whole term at the town’s Wesley campus, 36km north of Ballarat.
Insiders say with an ageing population some in the community wanted some clarity from the school about how it would manage public health concerns. There were also concerns about the teens going and coming to the township.
Wesley told the Herald Sun today that it had carefully considered the return to Clunes which has been part of the Year 9 program for 20 years.
“We have made many adjustments to the program to ensure the safety of locals, including our local staff,” the school said.
“These include limiting face-to-face interactions between students and community members and suspending our community service program, where students volunteer at local businesses and community organisations.
“We have amended all offsite activities to adhere to social distancing requirements and removed any direct interaction with community members.”
During the stay parents often visit on formal weekends but this will not happen.
“We have always maintained strict protocols for managing students’ interactions and engagement with the local community,” the school.
The students will have no face-to-face interactions with the community.
“Notwithstanding, we are pleased to have implemented innovative ways of supporting local businesses through online and delivery services and remote ways of connecting with community groups,” the school said.
Wesley buys its fruit, vegetables and meat from local small businesses.
Part of the arrangement is that children do their own meals, buying supplementary products such as rice, pasta and other ingredients at the local supermarket.
The school said that families had been informed of “all the risk management and program amendments and we have not seen a significant level of withdrawal from the program”.
Wesley said prior to taking the decision to go to Clunes it undertook at comprehensive risk assessment.
“We also implemented the Australian Health Protection Protection Principal Committee guidelines for the reopening of residential schools, with special consideration given to the specific context of Clunes and any vulnerable members in our community,” the school said.
“Of course, we also adhered to all other government advice in relation to these matters.”
While some in the community said they felt the school did not provide enough detail about its plans, it said it had been on contact with the local council and had invited any person with concerns to contact it.
“Over 20 years we have built a significant network of community connections. We have recently reached out to this network through online and face-to-face interactions, where possible,” it said.
Clunes Tourism and Development Association president Steve Hunter said the community was glad to see the kids back and a return to some “normality”.
“Business operators, Wesley employees and the community at large welcome the return to normality,” he said.
He said public safety was important and, among other initiatives, freestanding hand sanitisers would be provided at the entrances of all businesses.
“There has been a sense of nervousness from a public health perspective,” he conceded.
Although the township had to call off its famous Booktown Festival in May, Mr Hunter said
as restrictions eased the scenic township was very much open for business.
Ned Kelly featuring the late Heath Ledger and scenes from Mad Max were filmed in the town.
The intact streetscape has wide footpaths, making physically distancing manageable.
Mr Hunter said like many areas the closures of businesses had been challenging but locals had been making a point of supporting businesses.
The presence of Geelong Grammar’s Timbertop community in around Howqua, Mansfield and Merrijig also sparked concerns in March after it was revealed that six people who attended a Timbertop Parents’ Cocktail Party in Toorak, on March 6, had tested positive to COVID-19.
Principal Rebecca Cody told families on March 21 that it was known attendees had been overseas before the event. Some parents were part of the Aspen ski COVID-19 cluster which caused disquiet among the school community, around Stonnington and as far as the Mornington Peninsula.
The school assured local communities that they staff from Timbertop were not high risk. Geelong Grammar closed all its campuses by March 18, including Timbertop.
Ms Cody has been candid in her dealings with the outbreak with regular updates and has implored families to notify the school promptly of any ill health, saying the school had a civic duty to inform health authorities to ensure contact tracing.
The school says a staggered return of Timbertop students will start from June 8.
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