Coronavirus: St Ignatius Riverview shuts down but timetable for reopening stays

Days before NSW schools resume full-time face-to-face lessons, a Sydney private school has closed after a student tested positive to COVID-19.

The entrance gate of St Ignatius College Riverview in Sydney’s north on Wednesday. Picture: Nikki Short

Days before NSW schools resume full-time face-to-face lessons, a Sydney private school has closed after a student tested positive to COVID-19.

St Ignatius College Riverview, on Sydney’s north shore, will adopt a ­virtual timetable for at least the rest of the week while the all-boys school undergoes “deep cleaning”.

On Wednesday afternoon, the alarms sounded and all classes were halted as the school went into lockdown. Parents collected day students from the campus, while boarders returned to their on-site accommodation.

In an email to parents, school principal Paul Hine said cleaning and contact tracing would be ­conducted during the closure, which was not expected to last more than 48 hours.

“The safety and wellbeing of staff and students is our key priority at all times; as such, we will continue to work closely with NSW Health to ensure that all necessary health advice is adhered to,” the email read.

The school said the positive test was returned by a day student, and the pupil had no contact with its Regis campus, which is reserved for years five and six. Its boarding houses remain open.

NSW schools will resume full-time face-to-face lessons from Monday after several weeks of ­remote learning.

Since last week, most students have been attending school one-day a week as part of the transition back to the classroom.

The NSW Education Minister, Sarah Mitchell, has advised families that from next week, concerns relating to the spread of corona­virus will not be a valid excuse for ­absence.

“It’s a normal school week from next week and they need to be attending, rolls will be marked as normal and unexplained absences will be followed up,” she said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said more closures would be the “new normal” as the state returned to a full-time school term. 

“I said to people in the last few weeks, please expect schools to be shut down for a couple of days whenever there’s a case identified,” she told 2GB radio on ­Wednesday. “This is how we’re going to live for the duration of the pandemic.”

Ms Berejiklian said a staged return to the classroom had allowed schools to equip themselves with supplies for temperature checks and cleaning.

In Melbourne, a former subcontractor who worked on a building site at St Leonard’s College in Brighton has tested positive to COVID-19.

The site was closed for intensive cleaning on Wednesday and is expected to reopen on Thursday. In a statement, St Leonard’s College said the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services was confident there were no risks to staff and students from the school.

Victoria will begin a staged ­return to face-to-face lessons from Tuesday.