Increased number of Melbourne students learning in classroom during second wave
An increased number of locked-down Melbourne students are attending school in person compared to the city’s first wave of coronavirus, despite current cases eclipsing those recorded in Term 2.
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Up to five per cent of prep to Year 10 students in Melbourne’s schools are attending in person as frazzled parents pack them off because they can no longer manage remote learning or juggle work.
During Melbourne’s first lockdown, three per cent of students statewide shunned remote learning and were taught in the classroom.
However, the figure has now been boosted by the opening of specialist schools, children with extra needs attending mainstream schools and other schools are taking a more pragmatic approach to learning during the pandemic.
Schools are on a knife edge with some principals and teachers wanting them closed.
Up to 60 mainly secondary schools have shut this week after positive coronavirus tests with the schools undergoing deep cleaning and contact tracing, throwing those studying VCE and VCAL and students with special needs into confusion.
CBC St Kilda was among the latest schools closing overnight after the confirmation of a positive case.
Melbourne Girls’ College families are on their third day of closure and awaiting more information. A positive student at Kew High School works at a fast food outlet with MGC girls but it is unclear if the case is linked.
The average 4.9 per cent attendance is for Monday July 20 to Friday July 24.
While the figures reflect students in Prep to Year 10 who are learning on-site at school because their parents cannot work from home, because they are vulnerable, or because they have a disability, many are primary school aged.
In regional areas all years can attend but there have been outbreaks in the so called lower risk areas including Ballarat and Geelong, closing schools for cleaning and tracing.
Parents Victoria chief executive officer Gail McHardy said this time around there were more children purely because of a change in guidelines.
“We are hearing schools have reflected and responded to the lessons learnt in round one so there is a level of more comfort,” she said.
She said families have to complete a DET onsite attendance request form and the school then approves or not.
“Schools are doing their best under the circumstances as they manage impacts on staff and students and accommodate as many as they can within the rules.
“Every household in Victoria is different, certainly there are going to be families doing it tough and without any more leave or struggling to work and learning support for children at home. However, there is more staff onsite this time round and other DET/school employees being deployed to assist where able. “
Staff at some state primary schools report twice the number of students are being taught on campus compared to the last lockdown. One school of nearly 400 children has 20 regularly attending on-site learning compared to 11 last lock down. The teacher, who did not want to be named, said there were “extra students because this time around some parents can’t take time off like they did before. They’ve exhausted their leave”.
One schoolteacher said some parents were gaming the system.
“We’ve had anywhere from 8 to 16, depending on the day. Parents tend to send them Monday to Thursday and are happy to keep them at home on a Friday like a long weekend,” the teacher said.
“There is a real sense of dread.”
One schoolteacher said there were up to four times more children enrolled but not all attending currently.
Some parents were sending their children to school on their days off or when they were working from home.
Australian Education Union is not supporting the call for schools to be closed, instead wanting a more flexible approach for the teaching of year 11 and 12 students and specialist schools. It has repeated its call for schools to make their own arrangements for remote learning on set days according to the needs of staff, students and parents.
Some schools, such as Salesian College Sunbury and Mac. Robertson Girls High, have introduced work from home Wednesdays
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