Major change for Sydney students and teachers on the way

Students and teachers in NSW face major changes as the state continues to battle Covid-19.

All written Higher School Certificate exams will go ahead this year, with a new timetable to be officially released on Friday morning and students to receive their results in January.

The decision to go ahead with in-person HSC exams follows months of uncertainty and disruption for high school students, who have been learning from home since July.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has set a return to school date of October 25 as part of her government’s road map out of the Covid-19 lockdown.

A preliminary version of the HSC exam timetable was accidentally uploaded on Thursday afternoon.

It was swiftly taken down, but it reportedly showed exams would run for 18 days, beginning with English and ending with food technology on December 3.

The NSW Education Standards Authority apologised for the “confusion and inconvenience” the error caused.

“The 2021 HSC exam timetable will be released tomorrow morning,” a spokesman told NCA NewsWire.

NSW teachers will be required to get the Covid-19 jab by November 8, with a new report calling it a “critical step” to reducing the Delta spread.

Under the government plan, all education staff across all sectors must receive the jab by the November date.

A National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) report said vaccinating a high number of staff, students and parents would help minimise Covid-19 transmission.

Parents are also being strongly encouraged to get vaccinated. Picture: Theo Rouby / AFP

The NSW education department said the report findings should give confidence to school communities that when school returns, the plans in place will keep people safe.

“We are led by the advice of NSW Health and have been managing the operational response to Covid-19 for the past 18 months to ensure our school and early childhood education communities remain safe,” a department spokesman said.

“The report confirms that achieving a high rate of vaccination amongst eligible staff, parents and students (over 16) is a critical step toward reducing the spread of Covid-19 in our communities and achieving a safe return to face-to-face learning in schools, and early childhood education and care services.”

Education workers in NSW must get the jab by November 8. Picture: Theo Rouby / AFP

The education department has strongly encouraged parents to get the jab as soon as possible.

Most children diagnosed with Covid-19 during the current outbreak, including those who caught the infection in schools and early childhood settings, experienced mild or no symptoms, with two per cent requiring hospitalisation, according to the NCIRS report.

This was despite the high transmissibility of the Delta variant, which had led to a five-fold increase in the spread of Covid-19 in schools, early childhood education and care services and households, compared to the 2020 experience with the original virus strain.

The department said it continued to work closely with NSW Health on the vaccination roll out, with the health and safety of young people, their families and staff members the top priority.

Once Covid-19 positive cases are identified, protocols are followed to close affected schools and early childhood education and care services for deep cleaning, to notify parents and carers, and for NSW Health to undertake contact tracing before reopening facilities, a spokesman said.