School holidays extended in parts of Victoria as coronavirus outbreak worsens

Large parts of Victoria are going into lockdown from midnight tomorrow – and Dan Andrews has announced what that means for the state’s schools.

School holidays will be extended in metropolitan areas of Victoria for most students as authorities consider whether there should be a return to remote learning.

It comes as Premier Daniel Andrews announced today that Melbourne will enter a six-week lockdown at midnight Wednesday, after the state recorded another record spike in COVID-19 cases.

The lockdown applies to all of metropolitan Melbourne, as well as Mitchell Shire.

Mr Andrews said that school holidays in the lockdown areas will be extended for a week from Monday for most students except those in Years 11 and 12, as well as Year 10 students who have a VCE component of their learning, who will return to face-to-face learning on Monday.

“There will be five pupil free days next week,” Mr Andrews told reporters.

Mr Andrews said the older students were at lower risk and authorities didn’t want to disrupt their studies even further.

Mr Andrews said the changes to schools would only apply to the locked down areas in metropolitan Melbourne.

“(It’s) business as usual in regional Victoria,” he said.

However, he was aware that closing only metropolitan schools could cause issues, which was another reason why older students would be allowed to continue their studies.

“We want the Certificate of Education to be meaningful across both regional Victoria and metro, and having two very different settings I think would potentially causes some issues there,” he said.

Specialist schools will also reopen from Monday.

“That is in recognition of the very significant challenges those kid have and their families have,” Mr Andrews said.

Teachers will still be working at schools, preparing lessons or teaching students, including those whose parents are essential workers.

The Premier said they would finalise plans for flexible and remote learning before the end of the week, or at the very latest early into next week.

He said there was a possibility students may have to return to home learning.

“I’m not in a position to confirm those arrangements now,” he said.

“That’s why there’s an extension of the school holidays to give us time and parents certainty there will be sufficient notice.

“I know it’s a significant step to have to go back to learning from home. I would say that won’t be an easy decision to make. It won’t be done flippantly.

“We’re not quite ready to be able to make that call. We know how impactful and serious that is.

“As soon as we can confirm our plans with parents, and with school communities we will.”

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Victoria students will get another week’s school holiday. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Mr Andrews was asked whether he was concerned about recent outbreaks linked to school communities, including at Al-Taqwa College outbreak, where there has been 90 cases.

“I was surprised at how much we saw in schools in terms of cases,” Mr Andrews said.

He said the great majority of the cases at school were from children who got it from home or outside of school but Al-Taqwa was different.

“There seems to have been transmission in the school that was quite substantial,” he said.

“They are older kids. They tend to have more transmission. It’s like an akin to adults if they are not doing the physical distancing appropriately so that’s been a big cluster in terms of schools.”

But he said older students did have lower risk than younger children.

“They can continue to get to school on their own and won’t need parents taking them and picking them up,” Mr Andrews said.

“That’s seen as a much lower risk and every day at school is important for those Year 11 and Year 12 students we want to make sure their VCE is not any more disrupted than it already has been.”

Parents working in essential jobs that can’t be done from home can also continue to send their children to school.

“Whether mum or dad are stacking shelves at Coles or Woolworths or whether mum and dad are a nurse or a police officer, those kids will be able to be taken to school and for next week there will be a supervised school holiday program for them,” Mr Andrews said.

In announcing the lockdown of metropolitan areas, Mr Andrews told reporters Victorians “have to be realistic about the circumstances that we confront”.

“That is why the public health team has advised me to reimpose stage three stay-at-home restrictions, staying at home except for the four reasons to leave, effective from midnight tomorrow night for a period of six weeks,” he said.

The “four reasons to leave” are to exercise – though it must be inside the metropolitan area; shop for food and other essential items; attend work or school (if they can’t do so from home); and medical or caregiving.

The lockdown applies to all of metropolitan Melbourne, as well as Mitchell Shire.