St Mary’s College principal reminds parents to only send their children to school if they have no other choice

Some students at one Hobart school have been turning up for class for all the wrong reasons, prompting a “reluctant” response from the principal.

SOME students are being sent to school because they miss their friends or it is easier to get the housework done without them around, says one Hobart school principal who had to remind parents to keep their children home where possible.

In an email sent to parents and carers on Thursday, St Mary’s College principal Helen Spencer said she had been hearing children were being sent to school for a number of invalid reasons.

These included them missing their friends, “other families are doing it”, they were going “stir crazy,” “it gives me one-on-one time with my other child” or that sending them “frees me up to get the housework and errands done.”

“This is the kind of email I send with great reluctance,” Ms Spencer wrote.

“It is really directed at maybe 30 families. Unfortunately, I am not able to target this message to those who need it, so if you have been doing what is required, sincere thanks and apologies.

“We understand if you have no option other than to send your child or children to school.

I ask that if you have the option to keep your child at home, however, can you please do so.

“As long as the Tasmanian Government and Catholic Education Tasmania tell us it’s learning from home, this is how it needs to be.”

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Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff said schools would continue to remain open across the state only for students who cannot be supervised or supported to learn from home.

Term two begins on Monday for north-west Tasmanian students, a week after the rest of the state as regional restrictions are lifted.

“The additional week of restrictions has helped us get on top of the outbreak in the north-west,” Mr Rockliff said.

Independent MP Madeleine Ogilvie called on the State Government to have all students back in the classroom by the end of the month.

“The current suggestion that parents school their children from home for the remainder of term two – another two months – is simply unacceptable at a time when all the talk is of easing most other restrictions sooner than that,” she said.

As of Wednesday last week, public schools were reporting attendance was up to 20 per cent, compared with the seven per cent attendance at the end of term one.

Australian Education Union state president Helen Richardson said at most schools, children who attended were supervised while undertaking the same remote learning as their peers who stayed home.

“It’s so important that we keep those numbers really low so social distancing can be applied,” she said.