General News
21 July, 2022
Masks advised in schools amid student, staff shortages
The Victorian Government is “strongly” recommending students aged eight and over wear face masks in education settings as local schools see up to 25 percent of students absent due to COVID or the flu. Earlier this week the Department of...
The Victorian Government is “strongly” recommending students aged eight and over wear face masks in education settings as local schools see up to 25 percent of students absent due to COVID or the flu.
Earlier this week the Department of Education and Training, Independent Schools Victoria and the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria wrote to parents in a joint letter recommending children aged eight and over wear masks in class.
While not a mandate, the recommendation for masks to be worn in classroom settings will remain in place until at least the end of winter but according to the joint letter, won’t impact on student participation in school activities like sport and music.
It comes as case numbers in Victoria continue to grow, with a total 14,312 new cases recorded yesterday, bringing the total number of active cases in the state to just under 70,000.
It marks the highest number of new daily cases of COVID-19 in the state since January 7, when more than 50,000 cases were recorded, and locally an additional 25 cases were recorded yesterday to bring active cases for the Central Goldfields Shire to 122.
According to a number of local schools, the winter season and combination of COVID-19 and the flu is taking a toll on both staff and students, with a number of absences in the classroom.
Maryborough Education Centre principal David Sutton said a “regular” number of students and staff are away sick, with the school encouraging students to wear masks.
“We’ve had an online assembly with the students this week and indicated masks indoors are an expectation and strongly encouraged,” he said.
“It’s an expectation because it keeps you and others who are more vulnerable safe.
“We’ve got air purifiers in each room and many shared spaces, and we’re trying to open windows where possible.
“We’ve had significant disruption to our programs due to COVID but everyone is pitching in and making it work.
“Many staff have contracted the virus and had their week or more off. We seem to have a regular number of students contract it too, it’s obviously very contagious.”
To combat the increasing toll COVID-19 and the flu is having on schools, the Diocese of Ballarat Catholic Education Limited has offered Catholic schools, including St Augustine’s in Maryborough, the option to close for two days next month for a “circuit breaker” long weekend.
It’s believed the opportunity to close on a Friday and Monday, creating a four day weekend, would allow for students and staff to recharge and recover from illness.
St Augustine’s Primary School acting principal Rebecca Pickthall said the school is taking up the circuit breaker offer, with the school to be closed from Friday, August 19 to Monday, August 22.
“We received information about the circuit breaker long-weekend in June which encouraged schools to do the circuit breaker as a proactive measure and we’ve decided we’ll participate in that from late August,” she said.
“We’ve also received the advice that students aged eight years and over and all staff are strongly encouraged to wear masks but it is not mandated.
“This year has been challenging, we’ve had quite a few staff and students away and it’s also difficult at the moment to get staff replaced.”
Highview College principal Melinda Scash said education was a “challenging environment” to be working in at present, with up to one fifth of staff and a quarter of all school students away at any
one time.
“There is no doubt about it, staff are exhausted and it’s a very challenging environment to be working in now,” she said.
“There is a lot of absenteeism at school and that’s probably as much from the flu as it is COVID which is really hard because it’s affecting students and staff.
“We have staff teaching 75 percent of students in a class but then we’re also losing 20 percent of staff some days, it’s a very challenging climate at the moment, especially with no relief teachers available.
“Likewise, it’s also very challenging for students and families now as well.”
Similarly to other schools, Ms Scash said students are being encouraged to wear masks, socially distance and sanitise regularly.
“We’re strongly recommending our students wear masks and have handed them out to students but a lot of that is on families too,” she said.
“We’ve sent a letter home to families indicating that mask wearing was the chief health officers advice and it was the advice we would be following.
“It is hard to distance inside the classroom but we have been trying to reduce the interaction between year levels as much as possible and have all the precautions that have been in place since the start of the pandemic.
“We haven’t really eased up since a lot of COVID measures were put in place because we don’t want to go into lockdown again, above all else we want to avoid that.”