‘Goodbye Zoom, hello classroom’ as students return to school
STUDENTS made a welcome return to their classrooms on Monday, with principals and teachers thrilled to hear the noise and chatter once more in secondary and primary schools.
It had been a long wait for thousands of second-level students across the district – from first to fourth year – who were being educated via Zoom since before Christmas.
They are among one million students and staff who returned to their classrooms after the Easter holidays.
‘It has been a great day,’ CBS principal Pat Rossiter said.
‘It was just delightful to see the students back and great to hear all the noise and chatter about the place. We are following protocols now as strictly as we did before Christmas.’
There were smiles on the faces of students and teachers alike.
‘ The students are energised because they are back among their friends. Just as much it’s great for them to be away from Zoom which they had a huge amount of. It wasn’t just a little bit here and there for them.’
Mr Rossiter said the 6th and 5th year students are well settled back into school life, adding that teachers are also breathing a collective sigh of relief as their work days were longer due to having to work more from home, even after being at school for a lot of their normal work day,
‘I cannot thank the teachers enough. Last spring they were incredible. This year is just as hard going. The challenge right now is to keep covid out, end of story.’
Mr Rossiter said there was no evidence of fatigue from the students.
‘ The students will be enthused to be back and they’ll get on with it. All the teachers are smiling.’