Macarthur Anglican School’s students have started returning to face-to-face learning from today, with the most junior and senior years resuming first.
That’s 200 Year 11 and 12 students, along with 85 kindergarten and Year 1 students who have led the return to full-time schooling. There are more than 840 students in total.
All other years will continue with online learning with at-school supervision provided for those who need it.
Headmaster Dr David Nockles says he chose to bring these two groups back completely rather than one day per week for all students.
“I don’t believe any student can get the depth of learning needed to be effective by returning one day per week and think it would ultimately become supervision rather than teaching.
“We chose Years 11 and 12 because these young people have less opportunity to catch up on the work they miss. It’s such a critical time so we’ve put a priority on them so we can help with their transition to tertiary studies or the workforce,’’ he said.
“Just as we chose the two most senior years, we then decided on Kindergarten and Year 1 because these years are the foundations of learning.
“Many of the students hadn’t even had six weeks in the classroom before they then had six weeks out, so they really need to come back as a priority group as well.
“For all the other students we are working on a number of scenarios to bring students back on a staged basis, but we can’t finalise those plans until we receive advice from the government.
“We focus mainly on the health advice and make the health of our students and teachers our number one priority,” Dr Nockles said.
For all other years, Macarthur Anglican School will continue to offer online learning where all academic work will be covered.
The school’s dean of studies, Kylie Elling, said she has received excellent feedback from parents and students about online learning.
“Technology has allowed us to provide a quality education to all students.
“Although we would much rather resume face-to-face teaching as it is such a relational practice, we are doing our utmost to provide quality online learning,’’ Ms Elling said.
Teachers are using Loom videos, Screencastify, Seesaw and Google Classroom as platforms to post lessons as though the children are in the classroom and to provide feedback and communicate with students.
“We’ve had great praise from our parents and students about our online learning but we’re very aware our students are missing out on the social interaction that school usually offers,’’ Dr Nockles said.
“It’s so important for their mental health to connect with other students,” she added.
“Even when they do return there’ll be less interaction between year groups and no mass gatherings. Plus, we won’t be recommencing co-curricular activities until it’s deemed safe to do so.
“Extra cleaning has also been implemented with a complete sanitisation of the school facilities at the end of every day, and twice-daily spraying of the toilets and play equipment.”
The school will also have the appropriate social distancing measures in place to protect teachers from working closely together.
“The health advice we have received says that the highest risk is the transmission of the Covid-19 virus is from adult to adult, rather than between children or from child to adult,’’ Dr Nocklesaid.
“So we’ll be encouraging our teachers to continue with online video meetings and to keep their distance in our staff centre. We’re also encouraging any teachers or children who have compromised health to stay home.”
