Normal schooling will not happen during the week-long lockdown, and children should remain at home, Education Minister Yvette Berry announced today.
“We all knew that this lockdown was possible, and so the ACT Education Directorate and all our schools across all sectors in the ACT have been planning for this.”
From tomorrow, Friday 13 August, parents must keep their children at home, if they can, Ms Berry urged parents.
All ACT public schools will remain open for children of essential workers and vulnerable children, for supervision and general learning activities.
Year 11 and 12 students should continue their current assessment tasks from home.
Out-of-schools-hour care and early childhood education can remain open for children who need to attend.
Teachers, school staff, other educators, parents, and children 12 or older must wear masks when at school. Students 11 years and under and those with disability do not have to wear masks.
Ms Berry said parents and students at non-government schools should listen carefully to communications from their schools, and the ACT Education Directorate would be working alongside these schools for a “consistent approach”.
Online learning
Formal teacher-led remote learning will not be offered during the lockdown.
However, the Education Directorate has spent the last year developing and refining a home learning library which has a range of resources organised by year group that families in the ACT can access for self-directed learning.
Children who attend their public schools will be supervised and supported to access these home learning resources.
Public schools will make sure vulnerable families have everything they need to access this online learning library, Ms Berry said. The government will supply devices like Chromebooks and internet services, if necessary.
Remote learning
Public school teachers will spend the lockdown period planning for transition to remote education should the lockdown be extended.
“Our schoolteachers have all been preparing for this moment; none of us obviously expected it to occur so soon, and none of us really wanted to be in this space, but we are, we’re fully prepared, and our teachers are ready to move to remote learning should that circumstance arise.”
The ACT Government’s approach will continue to be informed by advice from the Chief Health Officer.
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