New South Wales teachers union warns it is ‘impossible’ for schools to practise social distancing measures recommended by the government

This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

Dozens of independent schools across Australia are going ahead with shutdowns as the New South Wales teachers union warns it is “impossible” for them to practise social distancing measures recommended by the government.

On Tuesday, Pymble Ladies College in Sydney joined dozens of private schools in Victoria when it announced it would move to online classes from Thursday.

While the school’s campus will remain open for students whose parents cannot stay home, the school will move online for the final two and a half weeks of the term before reviewing the decision.

The principal, Kate Hadwen, told Guardian Australia there was “no way” the school could continue to operate while adhering to the government’s advice about social distancing.

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“We have such a big community of young people, 2,300 students and around 910 staff, that it would just be impossible,” she said. “There’s simply no way we can manage that from a classroom perspective day to day.”

While the school has not had a student or staff member test positive for Covid-19, Hadwen said staff had been working around the clock since the beginning of the term to prepare for a possible shutdown and was now in a position where it felt confident it could deliver online classes.

“One of the things that was playing on our mind is that every day we’ve got people in our surrounding community being tested and of course it’s only a matter of time before there’s a positive result, we know that’s the reality,” she said.

“And when you think about the panic and fear that could lead to for our students and their parents, think about 2,300 girls trying to evacuate at once, we just felt we’re so ready for online learning, why would we risk that?

“We want to be in control of this and we’re taking away that risk from our community knowing it’s only a matter of time before we get a positive result for a student or staff member.”

Pymble joins dozens of private schools in Victoria which have made the same decision – including Geelong Grammar, Melbourne Girls Grammar, Yarra Valley Grammar, Xavier College, Ballarat Grammar and Haileybury.

With the number of Covid-19 cases in Australia now above 400, more are certain to follow. On Sunday the NSW secretary for education, Mark Scott, had a phone hookup with about 20 independent schools in the state who are considering closure.

In a video released to parents this week, the principal of Yarra Valley Grammar in Melbourne, Mark Merry, said his school would also move to online classes from Thursday.

“The reason for that is there is clear evidence that social distancing has become the most important tool now to slow the progress of the disease,” he said.

“It’s difficult to have social distancing when we have about 1,400 students on campus. The best way we believe now is to have students working from home.”

It comes as the NSW Teachers Federation president, Angelo Gavrielatos, criticised the government’s decision to ban public gatherings of 500 or more people while saying schools should remain open.

On Tuesday Gavrielatos said approximately 30% of schools in NSW had more than 500 students, with some having enrolments of 2,000 or more.

“Schools have been told to implement a range of social distancing measures which include keeping a distance of 1.5m between persons and minimising physical contact where possible,” Gavrielatos said.

“However, the design of many of our schools and the size of our classrooms make this impossible.”

He said teachers had also raised serious concerns about a lack of resources to ensure satisfactory levels of cleaning and sanitation to maintain good hygiene.

“The lack of clarity, consistency and, at times, conflicting advice and opinions expressed by the medical community and elected leaders is creating considerable stress for teachers and principals.”

The Australian Medical Association told the Guardian last week that closures would “almost certainly” have to take place as the rate of the virus’s spread in some parts of the country increases exponentially.

But despite that the federal government and chief medical officers insist schools could remain open.

Australian schools stay open amid coronavirus but NSW brings in social distancing Read more

At the weekend Scott Morrison warned closures could be “a very negative thing” because it meant children could possibly spread the virus more widely in the community and lead to vital frontline workers such as nurses and doctors having to remain home to care for their children.

“And so while it may seem counterintuitive, there is very good reason why you would not be moving to broad-scale closures of schools that could actually make the situation worse, not better,” the prime minister said. “And so the states and territories are not moving in that direction.”

James Hunter, the chair of Pymble Ladies College, said the school had consulted widely before going ahead with the move to online teaching. He said the school would still be open for students whose parents were frontline health workers and could not stay home, and that the online curriculum would mean students weren’t out in the community.

“I have kids of my own and they’re obviously quite confronted and scared about everything that’s happening,” he said.

“Something like this is so important because it means the girls are actually super excited, like, we’ve got this, we’re going to be all good and we’re ready for this. It’s such an important message at a time when there is so much uncertainty.”