Coronavirus: Victorian Year 12 students to be spared torture of VCE test delay

Victoria’s Year 12 students can ­expect to sit final exams weeks earlier than anticipated.

Year 12 student Fraidy Raskin, from Beth Rivkah Ladies College, in Melbourne on Tuesday. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Victoria’s Year 12 students can ­expect to sit final exams weeks earlier than anticipated after the state government announced they would return to the classroom by the end of the month.

The much-anticipated term-two comeback, combined with a strategic reduction in VCE workload, means it is likely that end-of-year assessments could conclude by the end of November, or early December at the latest, rather than bleed into January as feared at the height of the pandemic.

Years 11 and 12 students will join those in prep, 1 and 2 in returning to school on May 26. Years 3 to 10 will go back from June 9.

Victorian Premier Daniel ­Andrews cautioned that school would “look different” as preventing outbreaks of the coronavirus remained a priority.

Schools will be encouraged to implement a staggered drop-off system to reduce the number of adults congregating outside, while recess and lunch breaks will also be staggered to manage the ­number of students mixing across year levels.

Assemblies, sports, camps and excursions will be banned for the rest of term two, while $45m will be spent on cleaning schools.

Although Victoria has faced some criticism for lagging behind other jurisdictions in announcing when schools would reopen, having initially said remote learning would continue for the entirety of term two, the teachers union and principals have praised the state government’s “cautious ­approach” in giving schools ample time to prepare for the transition.

With 2250 students and about 200 staff on a single campus, McKinnon Secondary College principal Pitsa Binnion said she was pleased that students would be returned gradually.

Ms Binnion said a lot of the ­detail would need to be worked out, such as rostering staff to teach face-to-face and others to teach remotely, while mid-year exams for Years 9 to 11 would need to be conducted remotely, she said.

“There’s going to have to be a lot of flexibility for the remainder of this term and we’re going to have to be very responsive to staff and students,” Ms Binnion said.

“But what we’ve got to do is be cautious and safe so we can continue along this trajectory for the rest of the year. We don’t want to be going backwards.”

St Mary Magdalen’s Primary School principal Helen Healy was also pleased to have a return date but said staff and students would need to make big adjustments.

“We’re a collaborative learning community, with lots of group work and co-operative lessons, so that needs to have a rethink,” she said. “Also, we’ll look at modifying our timetable, such as start time, and plan for three shorter play times during the day so we can separate the little ones from the big kids.”

The announcement, which was welcomed by the federal government, which had been pressuring Victoria to catch up to other states, has removed significant uncertainty for VCE students. The ­Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority recently released revised course work for Unit 4 of every subject that was designed to reduce student workload and stress in the wake of significant disruption. Changes include reducing school-based assessment tasks and scaling back content covered in each subject. In English, the oral presentation has been scrapped, while science subjects have had the amount of practical work reduced.

The VCAA is expected to ­announced a revised VCE exam timetable within days.

Fraidy Raskin, 17, is keen to return to school. The Beth Rivkah Ladies College student has been learning remotely longer than most given her school shut down in early March after a student, teacher and community member tested positive for COVID-19.

It had been tough, Fraidy said, especially given she shared a home with 12 other family members, ­including five young nephews.

“There’s been plenty of distractions, and I’m definitely worried I’ve fallen behind in some work,” she said.