Lithgow's La Salle Academy has announced that students will return to classes - albeit a bit differently - starting this week.
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From Monday, the school's senior students will resume classes five days this week while each of the remaining years, seven, eight, nine and 10 will return to school this week on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday respectively.
From next week each of the non-senior years will go back again two days a week.
After a very long holdup with the manufacturing of the Year 12 Jerseys (due to covid-19), it was a very pleasant surprise for them to return today and all receive their jerseys.
The NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Monday that schools in the state still could be closed again if active cases of COVID-19 begin to rise again after these school restrictions are eased.
Principals around the region have been working hard with their colleagues to make sure that they are providing the best service for students to receive a good education during the outbreak.
La Salle Academy principal Joyce Smith said this situation had been one of the most difficult and significant challenges her profession had ever faced.
"Our teachers have embraced the changes and supported each other very well through this crisis," she said.
"As educators, this has been a steep learning curve for us!"
She said by mid-March, a few parents had elected to keep their children at home and learning materials were provided to those students.
"As Catholic schools in Australia were anticipating statewide response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we began to develop remote learning programs for students in each course of study," she said.
After NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian made her address to the state on March 23, La Salle began to fully implement a remote learning program from that time.
According to Ms Smith La Salle Academy has put extra cleaning and disinfecting routines in place, as well as social distancing measures.
"Extra hand sanitisers have been placed around the school and members of our school community receive regular reminders of proper hygiene in relation to hand washing and proper consideration of others when coughing and sneezing," she said.
"Our parents have been very supportive about keeping their children home if they were displaying any symptoms of illness."
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The school continued to provide pastoral support to the school community and teachers have been in contact with families to see how they were coping.
Teachers employed a variety of teaching methods for their students.
"Most of it has been online through Google Classroom and Zoom Pro Video Conferencing, with a high level of emphasis placed on e-safety for students and staff," she said.
"A number of students who live in remote areas do not have access to reliable continuity of their internet and they have had the ability to receive hard copies of materials, upon request.
"Students who need extra support with their learning have also had access to teacher aides to assist them online."
Ms Smith said she believed that the teachers at her school had done an amazing job to pull the transition together in such a short period of time.
"We have already been using Google Classroom regularly but teachers and students have had to learn to use Zoom very quickly, in addition to adapting teaching and learning to a completely online experience," she said.
"I think the transition has been nothing short of remarkable."
While having never faced this sort of challenge before, Ms Smith said that Lithgow has had its fair share of challenges in recent times.
"Between drought, bushfires, extreme weather, economic downturns and changes in the mining industry, Australian schools are very resilient and resourceful when it comes to challenges," she said.
"The greater Lithgow area is also very supportive of schools in times of difficulty and that makes a huge difference."
La Salle Academy has had to change and adapt their plans on a daily basis, because according to Ms Smith "there was just no way to stay one step ahead of COVID-19 as it developed.
"The safety, health and wellbeing of everyone has just been a huge concern," she said.
Ms Smith said that she believed her students were working very hard to adapt to the new style of learning.
"Our families are trying to maintain a structured and consistent learning environment at home, which has been a contributing factor to the success of our remote learning program," she said.
"This has been difficult for students, as they are missing the daily contact with their friends and teachers.
"Some exciting excursions, community events and sporting competitions have had to be postponed or cancelled."
Ms Smith said that it had been encouraging to see the high value that has been placed on teachers and the continued education of students.
"Adversity often brings out the best in humanity but I would like to thank everyone for their support of each other and of our school," she said.
"It will continue to make all the difference in getting through this crisis together."
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