SW schools ease parent anxiety and prepare for new year days ahead of eased border restrictions in WA

As WA counts down the days until borders open, South West schools are scrambling to ensure they are prepared to continue educating during what could eventually become the region’s worst outbreak. Premier Mark McGowan announced border restrictions would ease a week after school returns on February 5, however schools have not yet been provided a Government framework to slow the spread of the COVID-19 variant Omicron in schools. Shadow Education Minister Peter Rundle said parents needed reassurance about how schools would operate and the impact of public health measures on students. “The minister has left parents and students trying to figure out how they need to approach the school year all on their own,” he said. Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School head of school Matthew O’Brien said parents in the region should seriously consider children’s vaccination recommendations ahead of the return to school. “As a school, we have been very clear we support the government programs that come out though the Department of Health and Department of Education, which do say vaccines work and they do make a difference,” he said. “We will be writing to parents this week saying we really recommend people do follow the advice from the government. We know vaccines make a difference, even if you do get hospitalised the impacts are less, so we want to make sure we look after everybody.” Busselton’s Georgiana Molloy Anglican School principal Ted Kosicki said there was anxiety from the school community ahead of the easing of restrictions “I sense there is quite some trepidation and anticipation as to what may eventuate with WA’s ‘safe transition’ with the hard borders coming down, understandably there is also some anxiety also,” he said. “We need to be flexible, adapting to change at short notice over these next few months as together we face the Omicron virus in our community.” Along with many schools in the South West, BSGS offered pop-up vaccination clinics, which Mr O’Brien said was vital support for remote students and families. “When the vaccine rollout was happening for students, vaccines were not getting to remote country areas, so parents said to us ‘how do we get our kids vaccinated, we want them vaccinated’,” he said. “We organised for (pop-up vaccination clinics) to happen, again its was opt-in, we can’t mandate that sort of stuff for students and we won’t.” Mr O’Brien said the school would manage learning for unique situations as schools handled the transition. “There are vulnerable people within our community, they may choose not to come to school, so in that situation we will do out best to educate them while they are at home through a remote learning model,” he said. “We need to stay open for our boarding students to allow them to access the education, because remote learning at home isn’t necessarily going to work for them. “What we want to do as educators is keep that face-to-face learning, because face-to-face matters.” Mr Kosicki said it was important for schools to manage student wellbeing during the changes when moving to remote learning. “One of the difficulties is making sure the individual student is being catered for in a blended online learning environment. Losing the social connections between friends has been difficult for many students.” On Wednesday, Premier Mark McGowan announced a school vaccination blitz ahead of students returning to school in 2022. From January 22 to 30, an additional 4,700 COVID-19 vaccination appointments will be available at State-run clinics for children aged five to 11. “Getting your child vaccinated now is an important step to help keep them safe when schools return for the 2022 year,” the Premier said.