Despite health officials and the Federal Government’s beliefs on school closures, the State Government has made up its own mind on the matter.
“The Government can confirm school holidays for government schools in Victoria will be brought forward, starting on Tuesday,” Mr Andrews said.
“Schools will use this time to support teachers and staff plan for flexible and remote learning in the event schools need to move to that method of teaching.”
These changes will be put in place by some schools around Echuca Moama.
“We will be starting holidays for our students early, however our staff will still be on site for the remainder of the week, planning for the potential to move to an online learning platform next term,” Echuca College principal Simon Wood said.
“It’s certainly a stressful time for everybody because of the uncertainty of everything, but I think some of the definitive or decisive action that has taken place from the government has been really positive,” he said.
“It’s definitely not the ideal situation. I was chatting with a few students this morning, just encouraging them to look at it with a new perspective and see it as a new way of operating we certainly wouldn’t have chosen to do, but it’s something that will keep us all safe.”
While the future looks unclear at this point in time, schools are preparing for all situations.
“At this stage we’re not sure what will happen, and we have three different scenarios we’re preparing for when we do come back next term,” Mr Wood said.
“Ideally we would like to come back and have all students back on campus, otherwise we are working on the idea we could just be allowed to have staff at school or worse-case-scenario we have no one there, but we just have to take it a day at a time and see where we are at that time.”
Although not technically under the same jurisdiction, Moama Anglican Grammar has decided to bring their school holidays forward as well.
“Our school has decided to implement the early school holiday break for students commencing tomorrow. Like other schools, our staff will be working this week, doing preparatory work in the likely event of a move to online learning,” principal Carmel Spry said.
“We follow the Victorian school holidays so this seems to be the most practical approach to take. For most other schools in NSW there are still a couple of weeks of term left,” she said.
“At this stage the school plans to be open on the Tuesday after Easter for staff, with students returning on the Wednesday. This of course could change at any time.”
Families will be kept updated by their respective schools on their plans for these school holidays and into the future.
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