Lockdown students allowed at schools

Cardinia return to remote learning

by Yvette Brand Hundreds of secondary students from Cardinia Shire will continue to attend schools at Drouin and Warragul, but face temperature testing protocols when they arrive at school.

And, after an extra week of holidays this week, primary school students in Bunyip and Garfield will return to remote learning next week.

Prep to year 10 students at schools in the metropolitan lockdown area that includes Cardinia Shire, will now learn from home from next Monday until at least August 19.

Years 11 and 12 students will continue with onsite learning.

Any students living in Cardinia Shire and attending schools in Baw Baw Shire will be allowed to attend school as normal, with education one of the four reasons they are allowed to leave home.

One third of Drouin Secondary School’s students and staff travel from Cardinia Shire and at Marist Sion College, 19 per cent of students are from areas west of the Bunyip River border.

With a Pakenham campus,

Chairo Christian School is less affected, but still has a number of students travelling from Cardinia areas.

DSC principal Deb Gentle said students living in the metropolitan lockdown area fell within the guidelines for education and work.

She said the school’s bus network would run as normal.

“We will not be returning to remote learning at this time. We are working with families with special circumstances on a case by case basis to continue to support learning for these students.

“The college has stressed to our community that any student and staff who are ill must not attend and should seek medical advice.

“We expect to be implementing temperature testing, as soon as the required equipment is available.

“Above all we want to do our best to ensure DSC stays open and our students continue to learn in a positive face to face environment,” Ms Gentle said.

Marist-Sion and Chairo also confirmed their schools were open as normal for all students this week.

Marist-Sion principal Peter Houlahan said they did not expect there would be any real impact on students and students travelling from Cardinia areas were welcome to attend as normal from yesterday.

He said it would be very difficult to implement remote learning practices for students in those areas.

Chairo executive principal Simon Matthews said while they had some students and staff members attend their Drouin senior and junior campuses, travel was permitted for education and employment.

Mr Houlahan and Mr Matthews said they would put into place any required practices for temperature testing once they received guidelines from the government.

All schools said they would be following recommended processes for social distancing, hand washing and sanitising. Regular additional cleaning also will continue at the schools.

Warragul Regional College and St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School both confirmed all students were returning to school this week.