When students returned from extended holidays yesterday to commence their term two studies, it was in a way none had experienced before.

As the community acts to slow the spread of COVID-19, the message to students and parents of government schools is clear: all children who  can  learn at home  must  learn from home – with exceptions only in extremely limited circumstances.

Teachers will also be working from home for the duration, teaching their classes on a virtual platform.

On site learning will only be available for children whose parents can’t work from home and vulnerable students without access to a suitable learning environment at home.

Small groups of VCE and VCAL students can also attend on site for short periods if their learning requirements cannot be conducted at home. Physical distancing provisions will be made for the safety of teachers and kids.

“What we know at the moment is that all students that can learn from home, must learn from home,” Orbost Secondary College principal, Peter Seal, said.

“We will be able to provide care and supervision for those kids whose parents are unable to supervise them at home, but a day at school will look very different to what they are used to.”

Mr Seal said students who are at school are following the same program as those that are learning from home.

“This is because staff are also expected to work from home where possible,” he said.

“We will have enough staff on site to supervise the students who must come to school for supervision, but staff that are medically vulnerable, or live with a medically vulnerable person, must work from home. As far as possible, even staff meetings will be held remotely.”

When Premier Daniel Andrews and Minister for the Coordination of Education and Training – COVID-19, James Merlino, announced last week the way in which term two would be conducted, they said VCE students will still receive an ATAR score, but there will be a number of changes to the academic timetable for VCE and VCAL students.

These changes will include the General Achievement Test (GAT) moving from June to October or November, postponement of end of year exams until at least December and school based assessment tasks reduced where possible to relieve some pressure on students as they move to remote and flexible learning arrangements. Universities will also be asked to delay the start of the 2021 university year to account for impacts of coronavirus on senior secondary students.

VCE study scores will continue to be a combination of school-based assessment and external exams. VCAL students will have more time to complete their courses and this will be consistent with the revised dates for the VCE.

The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) is also examining a compressed end-of-year exam schedule – including slightly shortening each exam – in recognition of the disruption caused by the pandemic.

The full impact of those students studying their final years is not known as yet.

“We are yet to hear details about how VCE, VET and VCAL programs will be impacted,” Mr Seal said.

“However, we believe that there will be some changes to the number of assessment tasks VCE students are required to complete and changes to the date of the GAT, and perhaps the end of year exams. However, the exact details have not yet been provided.

“Our teachers will be providing learning schedules to help give students and parents some structure to their day. We will also be providing learning activities that are suitable to the individual situation of each student and ensuring that students are supported by our staff to work through these activities.

“Teachers will be available each day to support students electronically or over the phone and will be making regular contact. We know that students learn best when they are in the classroom, but we will be doing our best to adapt to the situation that we find ourselves in currently.

“We understand that we will learn from our experiences and will be flexible and adaptable to changing things that don’t seem to be working well.

“Learning specialists, Hollie Fuhrmann and Christina Keyzer, will be supporting our staff to provide these remote learning programs.”

While Mr Seal said he could see no advantages for one school over any other and that “at a time like this we don’t want to be trying to take advantage of the misfortune of others”, he did see being a small rural school as beneficial to his students.

“One of the great things about working in a small school and a small community is the relationships that develop. It is our aim to ensure that we work hard to maintain these relationships, despite the physical isolation we must endure,” he said.

“To do this, our focus will be on doing our best to ensure we are caring for the wellbeing of our students and staff, and their families, as much as their academic progress. We have wellbeing teams that will be checking in on students and families regularly and providing the support required.”

Included as part of these teams are the college’s psychologist, Lauren Short, school nurse, Lizzy Barnes, koorie engagement and support officer, Lynnette Solomon-Dent, wellbeing support worker, Bridget Westaway, and Hayley Davidson, a counsellor from Headspace in Bairnsdale. Overseeing these teams will be the college’s sub school leaders, Adam Ilton and Terry Gladstone.

“Our school purpose is to ‘work together to create opportunities for every person to be their best.’ Remote learning will not change this purpose in any way and we will ensure that our school values of respect, aspiration, belonging and resilience guide all of our actions and decisions as we work together to adapt to a different way of working and learning,” Mr Seal said.

In the junior end of the schooling world, primary school students also entered a virtual term two yesterday.

Stephen Mathers, principal at Newmerella Primary School where around a dozen of its 91 students will be supervised at the school, said the students, staff and parents are well prepared.

“We have quite a few parents who are nurses, are in the police force, work at the supermarket, or just have to go to work regardless, so we’ll have a few coming to school. But there will be no advantage or disadvantage in that sense. They’ll all be doing the same work no matter where they are,” he said.

“We had a meeting on Tuesday with teachers, half of us at school and half at home, to make sure we’re all up to speed with the Seesaw program we’ll be using to communicate the educational needs with students and parents.

“Every one of our students has an iPad, which were delivered to them this week, and we’ve had some parents come in to clear up any confusion with the Seesaw app. Every students and parent is connected to Seesaw.

“Teachers have been videoing instructions to send out to the students, such as the prep teacher filming herself modelling handwriting. Then students will video themselves working, reading, presenting activities and take photos of their work to send to their teachers. Their teachers will then provide feedback to the students and their parents.”

While it as a different term for all involved, Mr Mathers is seeing the positive side to it all.

“I see is a chance to really set all the kids up for remote learning in the future,” he said.

“Especially being in remote and rural areas, this term will be a great opportunity for everyone to see how it could all work should students go on to study remotely at university.”

IMAGE: A handful of students attending the first day of term two at Orbost Secondary College trial a virtual meeting with teacher, Terry Gladstone, to help teachers prepare for delivery to all students. (PS)