School life will change for regional Victorian students

Overseas trips will be off for the foreseeable future and formals and graduations will need to be made COVID-friendly. Here’s what school will be like for students when they get back on campus in regional Victoria.

RE-OPENING regional schools will allow people to return to work, but, more importantly, children can finally receive the education they deserve.

Mother-of-three and teacher Fleur Cullenward says she has been impressed by her children’s remote learning routines, but is heartbroken so many students missed formative experiences.

“I just feel that education is so vitally important and I worry, as a teacher, about the children who are vulnerable and are not getting an education,” said Fleur, whose daughter, Iona, is a boarding student at Ballarat Grammar.

“You have to look after everyone’s health, of course, but you also have to educate the kids.

“We can’t sacrifice them.”

Year 11 student Iona was one of the lucky ones, Fleur said. Internet connectivity was the family’s only real gripe. Iona enjoyed studying on the 3000ha farm that her family manages west of Hay, in NSW, with the virtual support of dedicated teachers.

Ballarat Grammar boarding students Claire Booth (left) and Iona Cullenward (right). Picture: Supplied.

For Iona and fellow Year 11 boarder Claire Booth, the final hurdle to a return to school is the trip from their NSW properties across the Victoria border.

“At the moment, we are in a place where there are no cases,” said Fleur. “And we are going back to a regional school in Victoria where there are barely any cases. But to return, they have to go via Melbourne and Sydney airports.”

She said opening the border for students to travel was just “common sense”.

Ballarat Grammar principal Adam Heath said a return to learning on campus was a linchpin of Victoria’s recovery.

“School has always been important,” he said. “But right now school is critical for the normality and reassurance children are craving when there is so much uncertainty in the world. Most important is parents feeling like their children are learning in the safe environment of school. Easily that is their biggest worry – well over and above their businesses.”

Geelong College principal Dr Peter Miller. Picture: Dannika Bonser

Geelong College principal Dr Peter Miller said helping children feel connected with the school community would be his staff’s focus next term.

“They have been left to their own devices for nearly six months,” he said. “A lot of our students have had just five weeks of school since March. That connection with school is just so important.”

Dr Miller said Year 12 end-of-year rituals would also receive special attention.

Formals and graduation ceremonies will be replaced by new COVID-safe celebrations, but first will come preparing VCE students for exams.

The pandemic has resulted in other changes. Dr Miller said overseas trips had been scrapped for the foreseeable future, but it was an opportunity to redirect attention to local causes.

“Rather than sending them on great expeditions to the moon, we are more likely to send them to the Grampians,” he said. “Rather than sending them to the centre of Australia, we will look more locally at Indigenous communities closer to home.”