Coronavirus: Lively student must learn to fly solo

This was always going to be a big year for Ellie Singe, a conscientious and creative Year 12 student with big ambitions.

Ellie Singe, 17, and her mother, Michelle Gallagher. Picture: David Geraghty

This was always going to be a big year for Ellie Singe, a conscientious and creative Year 12 student with big ambitions.

She was just starting to feel settled in her studies when her school dropped a bombshell. As of today, she will be continuing her studies online from home.

Her school, St Michael’s Grammar in Melbourne’s St Kilda, has had no COVID-19 cases so the move is precautionary.

There have been some tears as she gets her head around what that will mean for her studies and her goal to study at the Victorian College of the Arts and to what degree the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority will take the disruption into account.

Ellie has thrived on the collegiate nature of her small classes, and many of her subjects — theatre studies, fine arts, photography — require access to equipment and involve group collaboration. A big part of her mark rests on the quality of folio work she submits.

“I was more than happy to stay at school,” Ellie says. “I’m someone who likes to bounce ideas around and enjoy getting other perspectives on things, so the idea of being isolated makes me a bit anxious.”

Her mother, Michelle Gallagher, had an inkling this move was coming about a fortnight ago when the school requested that parent-teacher interviews be conducted by telephone.

She says the school has had the technology in place for the past seven years, giving it an advantage over many less privileged schools.

“As someone who works immersed in the digital environment and adept at using digital tools, the communication from the school is reassuring for me, but for parents who don’t have the same knowledge and comfort with digital, this must be so concerning,” she says.

“I really see this becoming a battleground for many parents.”