By Mikayla van Loon
Laughter filling the hallways, smiling faces, children playing on the playground at lunchtime and the excitement of learning is a luxury that has been missed by teachers and students alike.
But that all changed this week as primary schools were able to return to staggered onsite learning from Monday 18 October, starting with the Preps and Grade 1 students.
“I couldn’t wait to have the sounds of children just playing and walking around and just classrooms being filled again with that buzz of learning which is what it’s all about,” Gladesville Primary School principal Nicki Wood said.
“That’s why we became teachers. We didn’t become teachers to talk to people on a screen. We became teachers to be in the classroom and feel that buzz of learning happening.”
This wasn’t the first time students have been brought back to school in a staggered manner, so Ms Wood felt confident that it would all run smoothly.
“We’ve done it before, we’ve got all of our processes and procedures in place and they’re, as always, really driven by deep guidelines and operation guidelines,” she said.
“The key to this time has just been really clear, up to date, timely communication with families, about what’s expected and laying it all out for them.
“So logistically, we’ll have our kiss and drop zone at the front of the school as we have for many other lockdowns and children will come onsite and be met by teachers in the morning.”
With sanitizing stations at every entry and classroom doorway, as well as Grade 3 to 6 students wearing masks when they return, Ms Wood said every precautionary measure has been taken to ensure the students are safe.
“So the general feeling from our own school community is the mask wearing is just another precautionary measure to do the best that we can to make sure everyone’s safe and really no one has any problems with it.”
As much as the returning to onsite learning will be about restoring some structure, Ms Wood said the next two to three weeks will focus on reconnecting with friends and the school community.
“[The focus will be on] lots of fun and lots of reassurance that school is the same place that was when you left it, with lots of fun and lots of learning.
“But student wellbeing will be the big focus for the next few weeks and pretty much for the rest of the foreseeable future while we settle back into our old routine.”
For the Prep students who have had a turbulent start to their schooling life, Ms Wood said teachers have been doing everything they can to keep students connected with their friends at home so that the transition back to school wouldn’t be too much of a challenge.
“I think the biggest change for them is that they’ll actually just be able to come back onsite and play together, run around and play on the playground equipment and play with their imagination and interact with one another.
“There will be a few obstacles, we know that there’ll be a few tears here and there and things will pop up but for the most part, we feel pretty comfortable and confident.
“And that’s mainly through feedback from families as well and students that they’re feeling good about coming back and they don’t feel that they’ve lost connection so much, they feel like they’re just going to reconnect.”
