Ōtūmoetai College principal Russell Gordon said it will be a good change of scene for staff and students to return to school. Photo / File
Ōtūmoetai College principal Russell Gordon said it will be a good change of scene for staff and students to return to school. Photo / File
With the Covid-19 lockdown finishing at 11.59pm on Monday, students around the Bay of Plenty will be finally heading back to school.
Ōtūmoetai College principal Russell Gordon said that from a "mental wellbeing" perspective it was good for students up to Year 10 and teachers to return to school sothey would have a change of location to work.
But from "a practical point of view", teachers had to be mindful that the students wouldn't be learning online for 6 hours a day.
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It would effectively be distance-learning, but at school and supervised by a teacher, he said.
"There will be 10 kids in each room, which is designed for 30 ... each room has desktops, and that will be their personal desktop for the next two weeks," he said.
"If you imagine a room with 5 computers [per row], there will be two students sitting in that row, 2m apart from each other."
He was aware that parents who were essential workers would be concerned about their children's health, he said.
"They need to have some level of comfort that their child won't be put in harm's way," Gordon said.
"We'll be ensuring that for a room to be appropriate there's one access in and one access out for the 10, that will be their room - no-one else will have access."
They would also stagger the break times so that each bubble could be kept separate, he said.
"We're just carefully thinking through those aspects so parents don't have to worry."
Western Bay of Plenty Principals Association chairman Matt Simeon. Photo / File
"Some of the main ones would be ensuring younger students stay a metre away, staying and working in the same place ... that's not really how schools operate nowadays," he said.
But it was schools' responsibility to "step up" as frontline workers against Covid-19, he said.
"We've been asked to do that and it's just our part to play ... the hard work is to prepare and be ready for it."
Robert Mangan, principal of Tauranga Boys' College, agreed.
Tauranga Boys' College principal Robert Mangan. Photo / File
"It's our responsibility to follow the direction of the Ministry of Education, so we'll do all we can to support the process," he said.
They would following the same process as Ōtūmoetai College, with students learning online under a teacher's supervision, he said.
"All of our lessons will continue to be delivered online. The teacher won't be teaching face-to-face, they'll be preparing and delivering their lessons online."
This would continue until May 11, he said.
Principal of Mount Maunganui Intermediate Lisa Morresey said schools had "all got to do our bit", and she recognised that parents who were essential workers would need their children to return to school so they could work.
Mount Maunganui Intermediate principal Lisa Morrissey. Photo / File
They were planning to "graduate" the number of students returning, she said.
"So none of our teachers who are immune-compromised or have their own children will come back - they'll essentially work from home."
They still needed to find out how many students were returning to school before they could finalise how many teachers they needed, she said.
"I'm very pragmatic. It is what it is."
Education Minister Chris Hipkins said yesterday under Alert Level 3, most children would be expected to continue with distance learning, and schools would be open only for students who needed to be there.
He said education for students in years 11-13 would continue remotely, and more detailed advice would be released over the next week.
"I know that physical distancing will be very difficult with children and young people," Hipkins said.
"We have reached the point the Director-General of Health is confident there is no widespread community transmission, so the chance of it coming through the gate is low."
He said children were at low risk, and it was possible to ensure they stayed in the same group of children each day.
There was no public health reason why children could not be together to learn, Hipkins said.
However, parents should keep their children home if they could and any sick child should not go to school.
Hipkins also said distance learning would be with us "for some time", with 6700 internet routers and "thousands" of computers sent to households, prioritising NCEA students.
Hipkins said he was confident schools would be able to operate at level three.
Asked if teachers could opt out of returning to work because they were concerned about their safety, he said he did expect teachers "to do their bit."
