Some parents demand a return to class others want to keep their kids at home

Schools are grappling with fiery divisions among parents about whether students should be back in class, with some calling for remote learning until the end of the year and others wanting their children back on campus as soon as possible.

Some parents are also demanding proof that other kids are vaccinated.

Some high schools may also have to tell students from years 7 to 11 to continue remote learning for longer than anticipated to ensure there are enough classrooms available to run socially-distanced Higher School Certificate examinations.

School principals are grappling with the disparate views of parents over whether children return to face-to-face learning.Credit:Getty Images

Glebe school St Scholastica’s College proposed a hybrid face-to-face and online model that would mean students only attend part-time when schools resume in late October, due to clashes with the HSC and problems with social distancing while long-planned building works continued.

It prompted a strong parent response with many conflicting views. “Some parents have requested a return, others have demanded one,” principal Kate Rayment wrote to parents. “Some parents will not be sending their daughters back to school this term and others would like a partial or delayed return.

“Some families will not be sending their children while others are unvaccinated and other families will not be having their daughters vaccinated. Many have requested proof that all students are vaccinated and regularly tested.” Vaccinations are not compulsory for students.

Ms Rayment told parents it would be impossible to satisfy everyone and the school was not in a position to offer remote learning and face-to-face teaching simultaneously.

Amid Sydney’s current lockdown, schools have closed completely for cleaning after detection of a single COVID case.Credit:Nick Moir

But MLC School in Croydon, which is in a local government area of concern and so is still awaiting advice on whether it can reopen on October 25, has offered parents the option of choosing remote or face-to-face learning.

“We are currently working out the practicalities of this and particularly the impact it will have for our staff,” principal Lisa Moloney wrote to parents.“I trust that this assurance will alleviate many concerns you or your daughter might have.”

Within the public school system, schools will not offer simultaneous online and face-to-face teaching. While principals have been given some flexibility to adjust arrangements to suit their community’s needs, the intention is to have as much face-to-face learning as possible.

Christine del Gallo, the deputy head of the Secondary Principals Council, said at her school, that flexibility last year involved teachers live-streaming classes via Zoom to the handful of girls who were immunocompromised and had strong medical reasons to stay home.

“Our zooming at-home learning has functioned brilliantly but it needs to come to an end because students parents and teachers are worn down by it and there are emotional and mental health issues that have come into play which didn’t come into play last time,” she said.

“There’s more anxiety in both parents and students. There’s gradually less engagement from the students, less focus. Teachers, who have been working really hard, have just been so over-worked. We need to get back into schools for everyone’s mental health.”

Students are due to begin a staggered return from October 25, with the final year groups, years 3 to 5 and 7 to 10, back on November 8. However, the HSC begins on November 9 and strict social distancing requirements may force some schools to delay the return of junior year groups.

Advice sent to principals by the NSW Education Standards Authority said there must be a minimum of 1.5 metres between students, exam group sizes should be as small as possible, and schools should “consider having other year group cohorts at home during the HSC exam period”.

This angered some principals, who argued the HSC should have begun on October 25, when year 12 was allowed on campus, but before the other year groups were allowed to return. The date of the HSC was decided by NSW Health.

Most schools would only have to ask other year groups to stay home when there are exams with big candidatures, such as English, maths and Studies of Religion for Catholic schools.

“The exams will have to spill out into other classrooms, and in rooms that are full and big there may not be room, so I’ve heard principals say they’ll have to tell certain years on certain days they’ll have to do zoom lessons,” said Ms del Gallo. “It’s very difficult timing.”

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