Flying squad of tutors help COVID kids catch up

Appearing in the newly opened Docklands Primary School for the first day back to school Education Minister James Merlino confirmed 1450 special tutors had been recruited, with more to come, to help the hundreds of thousands of students whose education has suffered a blow during the pandemic.“I’m pleased we are on schedule to achieve and deliver what we promised,” Mr Merlino said on Thursday.“To date we have 1450 tutors employed right now and that will significantly increase over the course of two weeks and we’ll have the majority of tutors on board.”Premier Daniel Andrews heralded the return to the classrooms saying it was an important time for students especially those starting school for the first time.“It’s a very emotional day today for many many families”, Mr Andrews said.“I just say cherish these days.”The stark new reality comes as uniforms are laid out, new books and clothes labelled and shoes given a test run as more than one million kids head to school from Thursday.Government, Catholic and independent schools are staggering returns. Some of the 84,000 preps, including 58,600 in the state system, won’t start until Monday.

The state system accounts for 660,000 students and 14 new government schools and campuses are opening, including Docklands Primary, Footscray High Pilgrim campus and Eynesbury Primary School.Victorian students last year missed out on as many as 21 weeks of face-to-face learning. Schools are now fine tuning COVID-normal procedures, with some retaining staggered start and finish times to avoid congestion.Friends Tillie Dixon and Evie Chen, both 5, are excited to be starting prep at Lauriston Girls’ School. After a chaotic year at home, their parents are hopeful of finding a sense of normality for their girls. Eva Dixon said she organised play dates for Tillie and her two older children on Wednesday to meet kids in their classes.“Because they didn’t have last year — normally there’s a lot of social events, play dates and birthday parties — we just wanted (Tillie) to see someone and help her be a bit more ­relaxed come Friday,” Ms Dixon said.She always prepared school lunches and laid out uniforms the night before to help her children feel organised. Professor Harriet Hiscock, a paediatrician at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, said the first few school weeks would be about “getting on with friends, teachers and getting back into homework”.Australian Education Union secretary Meredith Peace said teachers were refreshed and looking forward to getting into the classroom after a disrupted 2020.“Staff are back and people are keen to get back and looking forward to a bit more of a normal year,” she said.Melbourne Archdiocesa Catholic Schools executive ­director Jim Miles said preliminary enrolment data pointed to an overall increase the enrolments with 155,000 students returning to 337 Catholic primary, secondary and special needs schools across the Melbourne Archdioecese.‘The pandemic we all faced in 2020 made for a challenging year,” Mr Miles said.“However, there are also positives to come from the experience, including more flexible ways of working, and strengthened partnerships between schools and families, which our schools will aim to build on in 2021.”
LOST LESSONS
REBUILD IS A LESSON IN GRATITUDEThere are green shoots at Clifton Creek Primary School, razed by fire in late 2019, with a bumper enrolment of 19 full-time and six part-time students from today.In the past week, excavation has started on a $4.2m replacement school for the one destroyed as fires whipped around East Gippsland.Rising from the ashes, metres away from a portable building trucked in as a temporary school, will be a school shaped by community consultation.Included are a rebuilt Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden, sensory gardens, shade sails, a new bus shelter, and space for community uses such as adult education and fetes. After the fire, the 10 students were relocated to Nicholson Primary School. They returned to Clifton Creek in what ended up being a disrupted year, hit by COVID lockdowns and restrictions.

Principal Sue Paul said they were looking forward to welcoming the new faces.She said the bumper enrolment for the school included six homeschooled students who would spend a few days a week at the school.“The new school has solidified the community. It is going to be a school built from the ground up and will be a permanent fixture for the community,” Ms Paul said.“The support we have received from the community has been absolutely amazing, overwhelmingly amazing.“There were times when saying ‘thank you’ didn’t seem enough.”

Long-time local Robyn Hermans said the community was excited about the new school.Mrs Hermans and her family, who moved to the area 39 years ago, have long been involved in the school, which two of her now-adult children attended.The Hermans are currently “bird sitting” the school’s peafowl and 17 chooks.Mrs Hermans said the family took them as part of the end of the school year arrangements when the school holidays started and they have stayed.She said the peacock is a bit happier now that the peahen is sitting on eggs, and is kicking up less of a racket at 3am.She said since 1911 the school had been a series of portable buildings but the plans for the new school were exciting.“It is a great little school. It is such a beautiful setting out here,” she said.
TIPS FOR GETTING KIDS BACK TO SCHOOL