SHELDON College principal Dr Lyn Bishop says she is confident everything will run smoothly when students log-on to virtual lessons during the first week of a COVID-19 affected term.
Dr Bishop said students would learn from home as if they were still on campus, with a full timetabled day to be conducted by secondary students using Zoom video conferencing software.
Kindy students would also follow a daily schedule, with a welcome address, roll call and teacher greeting in the morning followed by short lessons throughout the day.
Dr Bishop said the daily structure would depend on a child's age.
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She said students could still attend campus and engage in a normal school day but government directives on social distancing meant larger classrooms may be required.
"The number of students in attendance will determine the locations of daily lessons," Dr Bishop said.
"We have multiple locations for large, open-plan learning and we will use these facilities to our advantage in terms of addressing social distancing issues.
"It is expected that a large percentage of our students will be learning from home and our teachers are well and truly prepared to cater for this need.
"The college acknowledges the disruption that this situation has had on student learning, and staff are working tirelessly to minimise the impact on students and their educational experience."
Dr Bishop said she did not expect teething issues to arise as the college already had a learning management system in place that could provide students with things like live teacher demonstrations, private tutoring and peer-to-peer collaboration.
She said academic staff had been briefed on how to use the programs during the student-free week before term two and would be given further guidance going forward to ensure they were making full use of the technology.
Essential learning materials had also been given to students as they prepared to go online.
"Year 4 to though to Year 12 continue to use their self-managed device program to access their e-books and other college-provided learning services," Dr Bishop said.
"Student learning satchels were sent home, packed with home readers, workbooks for core subjects, along with their student and resource packs including headphones and learning stationery."
Bowman MP Andrew Laming said the National Cabinet had made it clear that all students should return to school next week.
He said the proof was in the numbers, with school age children making up just two per cent of new COVID-19 cases in Australia.
Fears that teachers would contract the virus from students were being stoked by unions, according to Mr Laming.
He said teachers would be isolated in classrooms for the working day and faced a greater risk from other staff, though even then the chance of transmission was far less than in other workplaces.
Dr Bishop said maintaining the health and well-being of students and staff was a key-priority.
"Our pastoral care team will be providing ongoing support for the physical and mental health of all students," she said.
"...We will continue to promote a responsible and safe learning environment for students, teachers, parents and administrators."
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