tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/covid-19-and-schools-84898/articlesCOVID-19 and schools – The Conversation2022-08-01T11:27:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1802742022-08-01T11:27:01Z2022-08-01T11:27:01ZHow some children prospered in pandemic online learning<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472611/original/file-20220705-14-hnv4ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2064%2C1198&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One child constructed a city out of cardboard boxes from his recent move to Canada. He shared this with classmates, free from the language barrier that made in-person school a struggle. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For parents, children and teachers, one of the most striking memories of the pandemic will be the sudden transition to online learning. </p>
<p>Many educators, parents and children struggled with online education <a href="https://theconversation.com/kindergarten-educators-with-children-at-home-struggled-during-the-pandemic-mental-health-supports-are-needed-175210">when schools were closed</a>, and were relieved when classroom instruction resumed. </p>
<p>While media often seemed to report <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/26/health/cdc-remote-learning-kids-mental-health-wellness/index.html">on negative</a> <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/longforms/covid-19-pandemic-disrupted-schooling-impact/">aspects of online schooling</a>, this was not a universal experience.</p>
<p>In my education research with international colleagues about <a href="https://www.teachered-network.com/projects/advost">socially innovative interventions to foster and advance young children’s inclusion and agency in society</a> during the pandemic, we worked with teachers as they implemented research insights <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X19875767">about teaching practices that support listening to children’s voices</a>.</p>
<p>In our study, we saw that through the pandemic, for some children, the online environment was an extension of how teaching practices like dedicated dialogue circles presented ways children’s opinions and thoughts could be shared. For these children, enforced online schooling overall was a positive experience and not a struggle. </p>
<p>In Canada, our research took place during almost the entirety of the pandemic in diverse and economically challenged Eastern Canadian schools. </p>
<h2>Some students preferred online learning</h2>
<p>Classrooms can be intimidating social spaces, and when they suddenly became <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2021/07/07/children-during-covid">virtual, some students found the digital space</a> better suited their needs. </p>
<p>Xavier was a newly arrived Canadian who had just entered Grade 4 <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/nl-covid-school-announcement-jan-13-1.6312653">when the lockdown began</a> in the spring of 2020. We learned that the online classroom gave him catch-up time, within a welcoming space, in which he could build English language skills. </p>
<p>Developing friendships, relationships and furthering educational goals all came easier to him when the confusion of a new language was eased, and he was able to learn at his own pace. The adaptability of the digital space was important. The stability, quietness and the possibility for students to go at their own pace — and some benefits of this — all became more transparent with the pivot to online classrooms. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2IGaLrmAlzg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Webinar about socially innovative interventions to foster and advance young children’s inclusion and agency in society.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A break from language barriers</h2>
<p>Online learning gave some children autonomy, and a break from the business of curriculum for children to work independently on projects. </p>
<p>In one home-based project shared online, Xavier constructed an entire city out of cardboard boxes left over from his recent move to Canada. He was delighted to share this with his classmates, free from the language barrier that made his in-school days a struggle. </p>
<p>When asked why it was easier to talk to each other on camera, a new Canadian student, Abdul, who sometimes struggled with English, said “because no one could interrupt me.” </p>
<p>Some new Canadian parents were able to learn English together in the virtual classroom. One teacher has an email from a parent to thank her for the wonderful picture books and reading time she shared daily.</p>
<h2>Families reunited</h2>
<p>For the many out-of-province workers who reside in Alberta but call Newfoundland and Labrador home other days of the year, online schooling brought family reunification. </p>
<p>One student, Roxy, talked about how less stressful life was while in Alberta with both her mother and father: “Mom went to work in Newfoundland online and I went to school,” she said. She was also able to assist an aunt with a newly arrived baby while residing in Alberta.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A mother seen at a laptop with a child." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472627/original/file-20220705-27-57n64i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472627/original/file-20220705-27-57n64i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472627/original/file-20220705-27-57n64i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472627/original/file-20220705-27-57n64i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472627/original/file-20220705-27-57n64i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472627/original/file-20220705-27-57n64i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472627/original/file-20220705-27-57n64i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Online schooling allowed some families with parents working in other provinces to be geographically reunited.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Parents played larger role</h2>
<p>We found in our study that parents also <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/schools-closed-effects-nl-1.6306510">played a larger role</a> in daily education, both learning from and assisting in teaching their children. </p>
<p>Children like Liv, whose mother helped her perform a song during her classroom’s “show and share,” integrated their parents and home lives into the virtual learning. Although some children struggled to find quiet spaces, even these scenarios had positive effects as parents, (reluctant or not), entered into discussions about their children’s school lives.</p>
<p>One mother, Tammy, pointed out that her children’s online classes gave her a unique window into a part of her children’s lives that she had previously known little about. She said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It was amazing to see how the teacher interacted with the children … My daughter was much more animated than she is at home, she shared a lot more … She’s not always eager to go to school, but she could not wait to log onto the google class.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Free from disruptions</h2>
<p>Some children enjoyed an environment free from the distractions found in classrooms, such as school announcements or classmates’ challenging behaviours. Children were also exposed to each other’s home settings, which encouraged mutual empathy. </p>
<p>“Everyone’s home lives went on around them,” remembered one teacher. “Pets and younger siblings came and went, phones rang, people ate, doorbells rang — we all just got used to it.”</p>
<p>Some students were quick to point out the extra time earned from not having to go to after school programming and childcare. </p>
<p>In our focus group interviews with teachers, they noted that some children who were behaviourally challenged in the classroom did much better online. “Perhaps it made the learning environment a little less overwhelming,” explained one teacher, “and so the focus was more on academics.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bullying-racism-and-being-different-why-some-families-are-opting-for-remote-learning-regardless-of-covid-19-165063">Bullying, racism and being 'different': Why some families are opting for remote learning regardless of COVID-19</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>More sharing</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A child at a laptop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472629/original/file-20220705-5022-zyewyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472629/original/file-20220705-5022-zyewyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472629/original/file-20220705-5022-zyewyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472629/original/file-20220705-5022-zyewyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472629/original/file-20220705-5022-zyewyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472629/original/file-20220705-5022-zyewyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472629/original/file-20220705-5022-zyewyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students shared on a more private level when participating in breakout rooms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the best things about online learning for teachers in our study was that all their students were able to share on a more private level. Breakout rooms allowed children to connect with the teachers and their friends in a disruption-free way.</p>
<p>Over time, parents and teachers also discovered aspects of the experience they found positive. </p>
<p>In the past two decades <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12230">integrating digital devices into education</a> has often been an awkward process, often with more effort going into limiting their use and distractions, rather than embracing their benefits.</p>
<p>As educators, we need to rethink how children and technology can interact in the classroom <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429259630-14/theorising-spaces-places-skills-tools-voice-work-early-childhood-caralyn-blaisdell">and various ways children’s voices can be supported</a> in different spaces.</p>
<p><em>Erin Power, a teacher in St. John’s, N.L, and a researcher with the “Socially Innovative Interventions to Foster and to Advance Young Children’s Inclusion and Agency in Society through Voice and Story” project, co-authored this story.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180274/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Burke is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p>Researchers studying ways to foster children’s inclusion in society worked with teachers to adapt classroom practices, like dedicated dialogue circles, to online learning.Anne Burke, Professor, Faculty of Education, Memorial University of NewfoundlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1776082022-03-01T19:06:03Z2022-03-01T19:06:03ZTraditional school doesn’t suit everyone. Australia needs more flexible options<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449095/original/file-20220301-15-1l79adn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teen-girl-school-pupil-wearing-headphones-1701863359">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Schools were <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/changing-role-teachers-and-technologies-amidst-covid-19-pandemic-key-findings-cross">thrown into a spin</a> by the COVID-19 pandemic. When children were sent home to learn remotely, teaching methods remained largely the same. Many children, parents and teachers were frustrated by the difficulties they faced when schools tried to transplant face-to-face classroom learning into homes. </p>
<p>Over time, a number of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09523987.2021.1930479">teachers</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-want-to-send-the-kids-back-to-school-why-not-try-unschooling-at-home-136256">parents</a> adapted their approach by reducing contact hours and the reliance on lecture-style instruction. Many moved to games and small-group discussion instead. For <a href="https://theconversation.com/parents-studies-show-most-kids-have-done-just-fine-in-remote-schooling-heres-how-to-survive-the-home-stretch-167969">some students</a> this worked well. </p>
<p>Schools in all states have now reopened and <a href="https://qed.qld.gov.au/covid-19/Documents/back-to-school-plan.pdf">students</a> are required to return to a pre-COVID status quo. But, many cannot or will not, and others feel they are being forced into <a href="https://www.covidsafeschools.org.au/">arrangements</a> they don’t like. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/homeschooling-boomed-last-year-but-these-4-charts-show-it-was-on-the-rise-before-covid-157309">Homeschooling boomed last year. But these 4 charts show it was on the rise before COVID</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The pandemic has changed some parents’ and children’s <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/pandemic-homeschoolers-who-are-not-going-back/">expectations</a> and experiences of schooling. For instance, many parents saw benefits for their child <a href="https://psychology.org.au/getmedia/6a3f524c-02c1-4e29-ac16-32a92a204599/20aps-ccn-is-transitioning-to-school-p1.pdf">working at their own pace</a> and being <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspor.2020.589227/full">more active</a>.</p>
<p>Research <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED588847.pdf">suggests many parents</a> would keep their children in schools if the system was more flexible – even if it allowed the option of attending school part time while learning remotely the rest of the time.</p>
<h2>From changed expectations to different choices</h2>
<p>While most children in Australia returned to school, a large and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-25/queensland-home-school-registrations-soar-during-covid-19-/100778840">growing proportion of families</a> have opted for some kind of <a href="https://sciendo.com/pdf/10.2478/jped-2021-0004">at-home learning</a>.</p>
<p>In December 2021, the <a href="https://www.parliament.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/1910132/Report-Inquiry-into-the-COVID-19-2021-pandemic-response-.pdf">ACT held an inquiry</a> into the pandemic’s impact on the community. Many parents sent in submissions requesting the state to continue to allow remote learning for those who elected to do so. One of the recommendations on the pandemic’s impact on schools was for the ACT government to</p>
<blockquote>
<p>consider the benefits of remote learning for some children and […] whether to introduce this as an ongoing arrangement for those who are better suited to remote learning. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Across the country, home education numbers have <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-08/home-and-alternative-schooling-on-the-rise-in-australia/100503948">increased</a> dramatically. While the exact figures are yet to be released by all state and territory authorities, in NSW, there’s been a reported <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sick-of-the-disruption-dramatic-rise-in-children-registered-for-home-schooling-20220119-p59pfc.html">28% increase in registrations (from 7032 to 8981) in just ten months</a>. This has been accompanied by a blow-out in the <a href="https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/regulation/home-schooling/home-schooling-registration">wait-time to be registered</a>, which has more than doubled for some families.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1494466882442653708"}"></div></p>
<p>Vivienne Fox (administrator of an online home school registration support page) told us the NSW registration process: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>has blown out to at least 16 weeks from submitting the application to receiving the certificate, which is when they say that you’re recognised as registered […] that’s more than one term. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Additionally, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-30/pandemic-drives-surge-in-enrolments-at-qld-independent-schools/100413048">private distance education schools</a> have seen a substantial jump in enrolments. </p>
<p>Dr <a href="https://au.linkedin.com/in/terry-harding-8a825420">Terry Harding</a>, the manager of <a href="https://www.acc.edu.au/online-schools/index.html">Australian Christian College</a>, one of the country’s largest providers of non-government distance education services, told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have four schools in four states. All are experiencing higher than normal enrolments. One has closed new enrolments for term 1 because of the massive influx of new students.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Rise of illegal pop-up schools</h2>
<p>Another, more worrying, change has been the emergence of education services that fall into a legal grey area. Teachers who have been forced out of the school system (often for reasons related to <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/catastrophic-qld-could-lose-6000-teachers-due-to-vax-mandate-says-union-20211130-p59dc2.html">COVID vaccination</a> or the <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-and-schools-australia-is-about-to-feel-the-full-brunt-of-its-teacher-shortage-174885">disease</a> itself) <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/am/home-schooling-on-the-rise/13729858">are moving</a> into the home education sector.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/parentsandteachers">Facebook groups</a> have been set up to connect families with teachers. Some offer tutoring or classes that parents attend with their children. Others have created pop-up schools where parents can drop children to classes and which provide progress reports.</p>
<p>These pop-up schools are not legally or validly operating and are not a non-government school. </p>
<p>To be classed as a non-government school in Australia, schools must be registered by statutory authorities in their state or territory. In Queensland, for example, it’s <a href="https://nssab.qld.edu.au/">NSSAB</a>, the Non-State Schools Accreditation Board.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thinking-of-switching-to-homeschooling-permanently-after-lockdown-here-are-5-things-to-consider-155381">Thinking of switching to homeschooling permanently after lockdown? Here are 5 things to consider</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In all states and territories, these <a href="https://www.finance.gov.au/government/managing-commonwealth-resources/structure-australian-government-public-sector/types-australian-government-bodies#structures-linked-to-the-australian-government-through-statutory-contracts-agreements-and-delegations">authorities</a> are made up of various <a href="https://nssab.qld.edu.au/About/BoardMembers.php">representatives</a> of the main non-state school authorities (such as the Catholic Education Commission and independent schools associations). They are convened by education departments to register non-state schools and ensure they are validly operating, including that they are not <a href="https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/pdf/asmade/act-2017-024">offering a school service to home educators</a>. </p>
<p>However, these pop-up schools are specifically targeting the home education community and offering a service to them. This is illegal. A spokesperson of the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is an offence for a person to conduct, knowingly permit or assist in the conduct of an unregistered school, for the education of school aged children […] Where NESA has information raising concerns that an illegal school may be operating, NESA will conduct an investigation.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What does this mean going forward?</h2>
<p>Schools are now a tricky position. They are trying to balance the needs of <a href="https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/7593166/school-still-unsafe-fernhill-mother-member-of-group-suing-education-department/">fearful parents</a> with the needs of those who think mandates, especially <a href="https://youtu.be/cAAELDBH2h8">banning parents</a> from school grounds if they are un-vaccinated, have gone too far. They are also dealing with parents’ concerns about children bringing the virus home to vulnerable family members. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1495309226260197376"}"></div></p>
<p>Some factors pushing families to homeschool and distance education are already well recognised. These include a child having a diagnosis such as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00131911.2020.1728232">autism spectrum disorder</a>, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00131911.2018.1532955?casa_token=EcB-Ogm2bXgAAAAA:lzMDJq-hNQK6mVWxveVGwHFjgFDGCV7wXUfS8KTHAwoqDATeS7j6o5i0A32d0Fc2dPS3Mq117Sl3">bullying</a> and the family feeling schools are <a href="https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/soc4.12725?casa_token=36pttErRnp0AAAAA%3A0i4DAe2ce9d8lQDtmZTS_VnRqpSQfpHejlGJE9xhiWkbSuKp-gl3i1g4MTPXibNkBpvn7n4ani41fg">not catering</a> to their children’s needs. We have known for a long time homeschooling is not the first choice for all families. </p>
<p>For many it is a last ditch attempt to <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lcdocs/inquiries/1837/100716%20The%20provision%20of%20education%20to%20students%20with.pdf">meet their children’s learning and well-being needs</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-want-to-send-the-kids-back-to-school-why-not-try-unschooling-at-home-136256">Don't want to send the kids back to school? Why not try unschooling at home?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Schools may have to adapt to a changed mode to meet parent and students’ needs. Flexible delivery, including opening up the distance education schools for broader enrolments, would support those who benefit from being home some of the time and help those who are concerned about risks associated with school attendance. </p>
<p>More options for distance education would minimise the problem of pop-up schools. And it would leave home education for those who want it, not for those who feel they have <a href="https://www.sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jped-2021-0004">no other option</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177608/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca English is a member of the Home Education Association. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Krogh is affiliated with Home Education Australia - a national, not-for-profit, membership-based association supporting home educators. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giuliana Liberto is a member of the Home Education Association, Inc.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karleen Gribble is a member of the Home Education Association.</span></em></p>As a result of long remote learning periods due to COVID, many families have found they prefer this method over traditional school.Rebecca English, Senior Lecturer in Education, Queensland University of TechnologyChris Krogh, Lecturer, University of NewcastleGiuliana Liberto, PhD candidate, Western Sydney UniversityKarleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1754312022-02-06T19:06:22Z2022-02-06T19:06:22ZTeachers can’t keep pretending everything is OK – toxic positivity will only make them sick<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442859/original/file-20220127-12-seexgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C598%2C3083%2C2059&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As children return to schools across the country, the outlook for teachers is bleak. </p>
<p>The spread of Omicron will make <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-and-schools-australia-is-about-to-feel-the-full-brunt-of-its-teacher-shortage-174885">chronic staff shortages</a> worse and has added to teachers’ responsibilities. They must now be COVID wardens, while supporting the many students whose mental health has <a href="https://headspace.org.au/assets/Uploads/COVID-Client-Impact-Report-FINAL-11-8-20.pdf">suffered during the pandemic</a> – not to mention teachers’ concerns for their own health. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-and-schools-australia-is-about-to-feel-the-full-brunt-of-its-teacher-shortage-174885">COVID and schools: Australia is about to feel the full brunt of its teacher shortage</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>All of this is piling pressure on teachers who already had <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=11725">unmanageable workloads</a>. In a national survey for the <a href="https://www.austcolled.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/NEiTA-ACE-Teachers-Report-Card-2021.pdf?mc_cid=3c49ed5cee&mc_eid=8c326867cc">2021 NEiTA-ACE Teachers Report Card</a>, many reported very high workplace stress. </p>
<p>Teachers said their workloads were “massive”. Their work-life balance was “less than ideal or non-existent”. They felt “overworked, burnt out and undervalued”.</p>
<p>Teachers are increasingly dissatisfied with the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-06/nsw-public-school-teachers-on-strike-tuesday-explainer/100676358">unreasonable demands</a> created by their work conditions. </p>
<p>A typical week includes piles of marking, planning learning for an increasingly diverse student cohort and responding to parent emails and phone calls, which can take hours. </p>
<p>Administrative and compliance tasks also consume teachers’ time. They must collect, analyse and report on student performance data. They are expected to document all student misbehaviour, welfare and well-being concerns as they struggle to keep their classrooms safe, inclusive and enjoyable places to learn. </p>
<p>Then there are the endless meetings, staff briefings and professional development, while delivering an over-prescriptive and crowded curriculum so students meet national achievement standards. </p>
<p>One teacher in Perth told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The expectations are impossible to live up to. We want to help our students and do all that is asked of us but often I face hostility and distrust from students and their parents or carers. </p>
<p>"After teaching for over 15 years this all has a cumulative effect. I’ve struggled with feelings of disillusionment and burn-out. Sometimes I think that my well-being goes unnoticed or is dismissed as unimportant.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One of us <a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-are-expected-to-put-on-a-brave-face-and-ignore-their-emotions-we-need-to-talk-about-it-153642">wrote</a> last year about the <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/137261/1/Bellocchi_Emotions_and_Teacher_Education.pdf">emotional labour</a> of teachers who have to manage, suppress or feign their emotions as part of their work. They “put on a brave face” and ignore their emotions to get through the daily ups and downs of school life. But it can be exhausting.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1345712318026432525"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-are-expected-to-put-on-a-brave-face-and-ignore-their-emotions-we-need-to-talk-about-it-153642">Teachers are expected to put on a brave face and ignore their emotions. We need to talk about it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Many teachers who have since contacted us are sick of pretending they are “doing OK”. They are deeply concerned that school administrators are pushing them to be unrealistically positive, despite <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Employment_Education_and_Training/TeachingProfession">evidence</a> to a federal parliamentary inquiry that workloads and stresses are eroding teachers’ well-being across the country. </p>
<p>With tears in her eyes, one very experienced teacher in Canberra described a particularly violent student bullying incident at her school. The police were involved and many staff were traumatised. </p>
<p>However, her school’s leaders required her not to talk about the incident, despite the stress it caused. More than a year later, the staff have had no opportunity to debrief with one another about it.</p>
<p>The teacher said the leaders’ priority was protecting the school’s “brand”, rather than to help staff confront the obvious challenges they faced. They were expected to cultivate a “positive attitude” and “be quiet” about “any negativity”. </p>
<h2>What is toxic positivity?</h2>
<p>Toxic positivity has emerged as a significant force in the lives of teachers in Australia. Education administrators are reshaping workplace values and practices to maintain employees’ positivity, happiness and optimism in the face of irrefutable evidence that everything is not great.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-avoid-toxic-positivity-and-take-the-less-direct-route-to-happiness-170260">How to avoid 'toxic positivity' and take the less direct route to happiness</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Positivity in a workplace setting is not inherently toxic to our mental health. However, <a href="https://www.uow.edu.au/the-stand/2021/what-is-toxic-positivity-.php">psychological researchers</a> are calling out the dangers of being persistently optimistic when our experiences are clearly and objectively anything but positive. </p>
<p>This happens in schools when administrators urge teachers to look on the bright side or find the opportunities in challenging work conditions. In doing so, schools sideline the issue of workplace stress by policing negative comments and ignoring difficult issues raised by staff. </p>
<p>Administrators are consumed by the positive spin. They offer staff professional development facilitated by “wellness consultants” who teach self-care strategies, such as doing yoga, to maximise well-being and minimise negativity.</p>
<h2>Is this sort of positivity ethical?</h2>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00131857.2021.2016390">research article</a>, we theorised about the ethics of positivity in education. We criticised the “positive movement”, typified by “happiness scientists” and self-help literature, which purports to make us all “lastingly happy”. We liken this pop psychology to the snake oil charlatans of the past.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-pop-psychology-can-it-make-your-life-better-or-is-it-all-snake-oil-158709">The rise of pop-psychology: can it make your life better, or is it all snake-oil?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We found that during a teacher’s university training positive emotions are seen as a highly productive way to build relationships with students. They are regarded as an important signal that a teacher is being ethical and professional. </p>
<p>Positive emotions can support teaching and learning practices and help teachers maintain their energy. However, we argue when relentless positivity takes hold in schools to deny negative experiences or stressors, there can be unethical and dangerous consequences for teachers. These include demoralisation and emotional fatigue, which contribute to teachers <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=6669">leaving the profession</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/exhausted-beyond-measure-what-teachers-are-saying-about-covid-19-and-the-disruption-to-education-143601">'Exhausted beyond measure': what teachers are saying about COVID-19 and the disruption to education</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Smiling man and woman holding yoga mats high-five each other" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442862/original/file-20220127-24-2n0l9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442862/original/file-20220127-24-2n0l9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442862/original/file-20220127-24-2n0l9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442862/original/file-20220127-24-2n0l9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442862/original/file-20220127-24-2n0l9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442862/original/file-20220127-24-2n0l9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442862/original/file-20220127-24-2n0l9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A culture of relentless positivity that offers strategies of ‘self-care’ such as yoga rather than acting on teachers’ real concerns can do more harm than good.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>We need collective care for a shared problem</h2>
<p>Teachers are experiencing what we term “collective emotional labour”. Forces such as the COVID pandemic and chronic staff shortages have put enormous pressure on teachers collectively. This means they need to work on their emotional well-being as a co-operative network, rather than as individuals.</p>
<p>Individual strategies of self-care to support workplace stress are exactly that, an individual concern. When it comes to teachers’ shared concerns, they need meaningful collective strategies of support and care.</p>
<p>School administrators and teachers should come together to put aside the platitudes of “keeping positive”. They need to find space and time to share and respond to their emotional concerns. </p>
<p>Teachers will then feel they are being heard and that their emotions are valid because their school culture is open, understanding and realistic about their experiences and stress. This is by no means the cure-all for the troubles of schools and the profession. But it is an essential starting place in these times of collective uncertainty and stress.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175431/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many teachers are sick of pretending they are “doing OK”. They feel pressured to be unrealistically positive in the face of irrefutable evidence that everything is not great.Saul Karnovsky, Lecturer & Bachelor of Education (Secondary) Course Coordinator, Curtin UniversityBrad Gobby, Senior Lecturer in Curriculum, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1748852022-01-18T19:09:32Z2022-01-18T19:09:32ZCOVID and schools: Australia is about to feel the full brunt of its teacher shortage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441207/original/file-20220118-13-1oqd26j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/many-documents-stationery-on-teachers-desk-1506172133">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Omicron wave is likely to exacerbate Australia’s <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/profession-in-crisis-teacher-shortage-predicted-in-next-four-years-20190417-p51f2q.html">existing teacher shortages</a> and demanding workloads. As school starts at the end of January and beginning of February across the country, many teachers will be at risk of contracting COVID. They will need to stay away from work, while others may choose to leave the profession altogether. </p>
<p>To address parental concerns about teacher absences, the Prime Minister recently announced teachers <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/teachers-fight-easing-of-isolation-rules-for-close-contacts-20220117-p59oug.html">will no longer be required</a> to isolate at home for seven days if they are close contacts, and if they don’t have symptoms and return a negative rapid antigen test. But unions have slammed this relaxation of rules saying it <a href="https://www.theeducatoronline.com/k12/news/unions-blast-relaxation-of-covid19-isolation-rules-for-teachers/279433">will only add to safety concerns</a> for teachers and children.</p>
<p>States and territories are putting together a plan to open schools safely, which is set to be <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/teachers-fight-easing-of-isolation-rules-for-close-contacts-20220117-p59oug.html">released on Thursday</a>. But for schools to operate effectively, and avoid remote learning, Australia must also have a long-term plan for recruiting and retaining teachers. This means lifting their professional status, improving work conditions and increasing pay.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-shouldnt-delay-the-start-of-school-due-to-omicron-2-paediatric-infectious-disease-experts-explain-174330">We shouldn't delay the start of school due to Omicron. 2 paediatric infectious disease experts explain</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What’s happening overseas?</h2>
<p>Other countries are seeing <a href="https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/teacher-shortage-predicted-to-drive-more-school-closings-as-omicron-spread-widens">Omicron-fuelled teacher shortages</a>. In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jan/14/its-been-awful-teachers-at-english-secondary-schools-on-the-first-week-back">England</a> teachers have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jan/02/moves-to-tackle-omicron-in-english-schools-not-enough-unions-warn">told to combine classes due to staff shortages</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1483160953726418945"}"></div></p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/parents-teachers-in-four-provinces-prepare-to-return-to-class-as-omicron-spreads-1.5742089">Canada</a> some provinces had to delay opening schools. In <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-families-to-be-notified-when-30-of-staff-and-students-are/">Ontario</a> families who were previously notified when a teacher or child in their class tested positive will now only be notified when more than 30% of staff and students are absent. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/13/half-of-french-primary-schools-expected-to-close-teachers-strike-protest-covid-education">France</a> teachers have gone on strike over what are described as “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/13/french-teachers-strike-over-chaotic-covid-19-school-strategy">chaotic conditions</a>”. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1481947954252423170"}"></div></p>
<p>Schools in the United States, like in Australia, suffered from pre-pandemic teacher shortages and have struggled to stay open during the pandemic. Some states have <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/parents-become-substitute-teachers-as-omicron-surge-bedevils-joe-biden-20220114-p59o5o.html">recruited parents as stop-gap</a> substitute teachers, others <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/us-schools-switch-remote-learning-delay-start-classes-omicron-surge-di-rcna10795">returned to remote learning</a>.</p>
<p>Research in the US has made it clear the pandemic has <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2021/09/08/how-the-pandemic-has-changed-teachers-commitment-to-remaining-in-the-classroom/">changed teachers’ committment to remaining in the classroom</a> and led to <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1121-2.html">high staff turnover</a>. Australians may find themselves in the same position.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1481327170433728518"}"></div></p>
<h2>Australia’s teacher shortage</h2>
<p>Australia’s <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e3758f6cdad377a5754259c/t/60597e729a6b026b0016beef/1616477832453/gallop_inquiry_report_2021.pdf">teachers suffer from poor professional status</a>. A lack of respect, problems with recruitment, <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=11446">poor pay</a> (relative to other professions), <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=11725">high workload</a>, conflicting demands and now the pandemic, have conspired to create a perfect storm. </p>
<p>A range of data and reports suggest the scale of the emerging teacher shortage will be serious. Low <a href="https://www.nswtf.org.au/files/20042_theprofessionatrisk_digital.pdf">completion rates of teacher degrees</a> (fewer than 60% of those who started the degree) alongside <a href="https://www.nswtf.org.au/files/rorris-report.pdf">rising child and youth demographic trends</a> mean many schools, particularly those in rural areas, will find things even more difficult over the next few years.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/were-short-of-teachers-and-the-struggles-to-find-training-placements-in-schools-add-to-the-problem-172486">We're short of teachers, and the struggles to find training placements in schools add to the problem</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Reports from the New South Wales education department, accessed by the NSW Teachers Federation, show <a href="https://twitter.com/unionsnsw/status/1445930912919666688?s=21">more than 1,100</a> full time secondary and special education teaching positions were unfilled in 2021. That’s a lot of classrooms without a teacher. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/public-school-teacher-shortage-raises-fears-they-will-run-out-of-teachers-20211003-p58wtq.html">documents also reportedly say</a> the state’s public schools will “run out of teachers in the next five years”. Meanwhile, states <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/teachers-fight-easing-of-isolation-rules-for-close-contacts-20220117-p59oug.html">struggled to find casual and relief teachers</a> to fill the pandemic exacerbated shortages in the past two years.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1445930912919666688"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://www.nswtf.org.au/files/rorris-report.pdf">Projections</a> based on 2020 student enrolments, student to teacher ratio and school population growth suggest between 11,000 and 13,000 new teachers will be needed in NSW by 2031.</p>
<p>Nationally we have seen a chronic shortage in maths and science teachers. With the Australian Teacher Workforce Data Project still in development phase after ten years there has been no systemic national tracking of generic or specialist shortages. The <a href="https://amsi.org.au/media/AMSI-Occasional-Paper-Out-of-Field-Maths-Teaching.pdf">Australian Mathematics and Science Institute</a> calculates there is a 76% chance every student will have at least one unqualified maths teacher in years 7 to 10. </p>
<p>Long-term toleration of the teacher shortages in maths and science is particularly surprising as these <a href="https://amsi.org.au/2015/03/26/chief-scientist-report-2015/">learning areas are critical to our economy</a>. There are also well documented <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=policy_analysis_misc">declines in senior students taking these subjects</a>, suggesting we are already paying the price for this neglect.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fewer-australians-are-taking-advanced-maths-in-year-12-we-can-learn-from-countries-doing-it-better-149148">Fewer Australians are taking advanced maths in Year 12. We can learn from countries doing it better</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There has been no government reporting on the number of schools unable to meet their staff needs in 2021. But a number of social media reports have shown industrial action in individual schools where the remaining teachers were unable to maintain classes.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1448868753329074176"}"></div></p>
<h2>We need a national plan</h2>
<p>A large volume of research documents the <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=tJpIEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT103&dq=info:oKuPwBF3IVcJ:scholar.google.com&ots=JfhFao6ROJ&sig=Wyfp4VxsSLTRZAaeUtOONi9V6Jg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">high and increasing workload of Australian teachers</a>. In NSW, before the pandemic, <a href="https://www.nswtf.org.au/files/18438_uwis_digital.pdf">teachers reported working</a> an average of 55 hours per week and principals an average of 62. With the <a href="https://www.cse.edu.au/content/teachers%E2%80%99-work-during-covid-19-pandemic-shifts-challenges-and-opportunities">pandemic increasing teacher workload</a>, short staffing in schools will ratchet that up another notch. </p>
<p>Unlike many countries, including <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-recruitment-and-retention-strategy">England</a>, Australia <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/your-country-needs-you-it-s-high-time-for-a-drive-to-recruit-better-teachers-20200219-p5429i.html">doesn’t have a strategic plan</a> to recruit and retain teachers. </p>
<p>The NSW Teachers Federation commissioned an independent inquiry in 2020 into the work of teachers and principals, and how it’s changed since 2004. After reviewing international evidence and local data, the <a href="https://www.nswtf.org.au/files/gallop_inquiry_fact_sheet.pdf#:%7E:text=Gallop%20Inquiry%20Fact%20Sheet%20Background%20on%20the%20inquiry,principals%20and%20how%20it%20has%20changed%20since%202004">final report</a> made a range of recommendations to “recognise the increase in skills and responsibilities, help overcome shortages and recruit the additional teachers needed to cope with enrolment growth”. </p>
<p>The key recommendations included:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>increase teacher salaries by 10 to 15% to bring them on par with other similarly educated professions </p></li>
<li><p>increase lesson preparation time </p></li>
<li><p>improve promotions and career structure </p></li>
<li><p>increase number of school counsellors</p></li>
<li><p>reduce curriculum and administration workload. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Australia urgently needs a coordinated, long-term, politically bipartisan plan to strengthen teacher recruitment, placement and retention. With such a plan in hand we will be better positioned to tackle the ongoing pandemic and whatever other crises we face in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174885/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With decreasing teacher degree completion rates and low teacher retention, Australia was already facing a growing teacher shortage before the pandemic. But it’s about to get much worse.Rachel Wilson, Associate Professor in Education, University of SydneyGiuseppe Carabetta, Senior Lecturer, Sydney University Business School, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1702642021-10-21T19:10:29Z2021-10-21T19:10:29ZWrite what you know: the COVID experience is a rich resource for year 12 English exams<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427685/original/file-20211021-19-10vtqgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/ecofriendly-sustainable-face-mask-woman-wearing-1802583382">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Generations of students sitting exams would know what Australian poet Joanne Burns means when she <a href="https://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/burns-joanne/poems/clearing-the-throat-0178016">writes of the fear of failure</a> when expressing ideas.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>they don’t come out of your mouth in smooth formation very often […]</p>
<p>you become intimidated far too easily by the prospect of that great black trapdoor under your words, that might open and tumble you down to the cavern of indefinite shame if you start to make the slightest mistake […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 2021, English students are not only striving to overcome the “trapdoor” under their words, they are doing so in a year that has challenged them to see their world very differently.</p>
<p>COVID-19 has shaped a year of uncertainty. For secondary students eyeing the finish line of their school days, the disruptions to life, and disappointments from cancelled rites of passage, have been a crash course in the vicissitudes of human experiences.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fears-loom-for-teens-undergoing-vital-brain-development-during-covid-telling-stories-might-help-155295">Fears loom for teens undergoing vital brain development during COVID. Telling stories might help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There is no denying the serious challenges faced by so many. But senior students writing English exams can also use their experiences from this period of turbulence as a source of inspiration.</p>
<h2>Write what you know, but stand outside your experience</h2>
<p><a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/informit.069886607625826">Classroom-based research</a> has long supported the importance of “harnessing students’ own knowledge, experience, imagination and memories” in writing. Helping students to <a href="https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/professional-learning/scan/past-issues/vol-37-2018/poets-in-the-making-confirming-identity-in-english">tell their own stories</a> is a powerful way to value their experiences and support their identity.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/im-in-another-world-writing-without-rules-lets-kids-find-their-voice-just-like-professional-authors-124976">'I'm in another world': writing without rules lets kids find their voice, just like professional authors</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Authors often use their everyday perceptions of the world as a source of inspiration. Novelist P.D. James <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-24867584">famously observed</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You absolutely should write about what you know… [but] You have to learn to stand outside of yourself. All experience, whether it is painful or whether it is happy, is somehow stored up and sooner or later it’s used.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Drawing on lived experience doesn’t have to be explicit. Standing outside of yourself means not literally recounting a life story in boring detail. It means being original and doing what good writers do by asking questions to re-imagine personal experiences.</p>
<p>Questions you could ask yourself include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>what if the personal experience was told from a different perspective?</p></li>
<li><p>how could a character trait or emotion be exaggerated for comic or tragic effect?</p></li>
<li><p>how could the setting be changed to become more dramatic, unfamiliar, surreal, or perhaps possible in the future?</p></li>
<li><p>what if you use a flashback or flashforward to delay the action and build suspense?</p></li>
<li><p>could the dominant mood be altered to take the narrative in a different direction?</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427688/original/file-20211021-25-27qc16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An elephant sitting in a tree." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427688/original/file-20211021-25-27qc16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427688/original/file-20211021-25-27qc16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427688/original/file-20211021-25-27qc16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427688/original/file-20211021-25-27qc16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427688/original/file-20211021-25-27qc16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427688/original/file-20211021-25-27qc16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427688/original/file-20211021-25-27qc16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Could you use personal experience and change it to make it surreal?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/elephant-dry-tree-surreal-landscape-this-688008427">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Using these techniques you could write about Zoom gatherings and viral TikTok dances in a satirical way. </p>
<p>Or consider using the enduring tensions around individual choice and collective responsibility as an example or metaphor in a writing task or persuasive text (writing an argument).</p>
<h2>Use the writing prompt, but be interesting</h2>
<p>Writing tasks in English exams include prompts. These vary widely but commonly focus on human experience and are broad enough to open a wide range of possibilities you could use in your writing.</p>
<p>In a past <a href="https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/senior/see_english_18_p2pa.pdf">senior English Queensland exam</a>, students were asked to use a set of images and develop a narrative using the theme of “a fork in the road”. </p>
<p>In one of the images a man wearing a backpack is standing in a forest.</p>
<p>For this task, you could use the image and “fork in the road” theme to explore potential decisions that could come about from having experienced social isolation during COVID. For instance, after the pandemic is over, do you want to return to your old social life or continue spending more time by yourself?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427690/original/file-20211021-18-eiufcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Illustration of people standing part from each other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427690/original/file-20211021-18-eiufcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427690/original/file-20211021-18-eiufcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427690/original/file-20211021-18-eiufcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427690/original/file-20211021-18-eiufcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427690/original/file-20211021-18-eiufcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427690/original/file-20211021-18-eiufcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427690/original/file-20211021-18-eiufcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">You could explore the idea of social isolation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/corona-virus-social-distancing-concept-hope-1720414759">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>English exams often contain excerpts from texts as a writing stimulus, like this one from the short story Underdog, by Tobias Madden, which appeared in a <a href="https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/a9eb71f1-f194-46db-915c-673eaefb4545/2020-hsc-english-standard-paper-2.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=ROOTWORKSPACE-a9eb71f1-f194-46db-915c-673eaefb4545-nEJpe0p">NSW exam</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This is my world now, and it can be yours too, if you like. A place can soak through your skin like sweat, and ooze into your heart and soul. Breathe it in, and let me tell you a story.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>With a prompt like this, you could use personal experiences such as:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a familiar location such as a disused warehouse in a local street, or the carefully styled loft apartment from an influencer’s social media post</p></li>
<li><p>comparisons between two worlds – your known world (a bustling commercial landscape) and another world (a desolate, urban landscape waiting for people to re-inhabit it)</p></li>
<li><p>a memoir-style description of a grandparents’ house, as told to a younger family member with use of dialogue in English and the student’s first language to construct authenticity.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-the-story-writing-trauma-in-cynthia-banhams-a-certain-light-115301">Inside the story: writing trauma in Cynthia Banham's A Certain Light</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is always important for students to closely follow the task instructions because the marking criteria will assess the extent to which students are able to reflect the task parameters in their response. </p>
<p>Rote-learned, off-task pieces of writing will not be graded highly by markers.</p>
<p>English offers a unique space for students to write about their world. If students write what they know but make it interesting, their experiences during their turbulent senior year can be reshaped into meaningful and creative exam writing tasks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170264/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janet was Chief Examiner, English (Advanced & Standard), NSW HSC (2012-2016).</span></em></p>Senior school students have had a stressful year. But their personal experiences during this turbulent period can also be a source of inspiration for writing tasks in the English exam.Janet Dutton, Senior Lecturer, Secondary English, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1699282021-10-18T19:14:44Z2021-10-18T19:14:44ZCOVID-19 cases rise when schools open – but more so when teachers and students don’t wear masks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426838/original/file-20211018-17-10q41fx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/coronavirus-impact-on-education-little-girl-1908799819">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As students return to schools in Victoria and New South Wales after months of lockdowns, many people may be worried about the risks to their kids – and transmission overall.</p>
<p>The role that schools play in transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19 has been difficult to work out, but new evidence can finally answer that question. Schools do amplify community transmission, but the good news is that some relatively simple mitigation measures can make schools much safer places.</p>
<p>To successfully navigate the next phase of the pandemic and protect our kids, we need to switch to a so-called “<a href="https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2021/34/vaccination-alone-not-enough-to-control-covid-19/">vaccine-plus</a>” strategy – vaccination together with <a href="https://ozsage.org/media_releases/protecting-children-from-covid-19-and-making-schools-and-childcare-safer/">measures to clean the air</a>.</p>
<h2>What new evidence says about opening schools</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/42/e2103420118">new study</a> conducted in the United States found school reopening in late 2020 was associated with an increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths. </p>
<p>Some of the increase can be attributed to other restrictions being eased at the same time, and to parents having the ability to return to the workplace, where transmission also occurs. </p>
<p>But importantly, cases and deaths increased most in counties where students and teachers did not have to wear masks at school.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1448006700665999364"}"></div></p>
<p>We shouldn’t be surprised at this finding, because face masks are one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19. An investigation into school outbreaks, supported by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), found that schools without an indoor mask requirement were <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7039e1.htm">3.5 times more likely to have an outbreak</a> than schools in which students and staff did have to wear masks.</p>
<p>This is why the CDC <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html">recommends universal indoor masking</a> by all children aged two and older, as well as teachers and visitors to schools, regardless of whether they’re vaccinated.</p>
<h2>More evidence to support masks in schools</h2>
<p>One of the reasons it has been hard to see transmission in schools is because children generally have mild symptoms. This leads to infections going undetected. But the picture is very different when researchers actively look for cases.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cant-get-your-kid-to-wear-a-mask-here-are-5-things-you-can-try-166648">Can't get your kid to wear a mask? Here are 5 things you can try</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Researchers in Belgium conducted a <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2784812">study</a> where primary school children and their teachers were tested once per week for 15 weeks. They found many instances of transmission between children and adults that spread beyond the school to the children’s parents and to the teachers’ partners. Some mitigation measures were in place in the school, but not mask wearing.</p>
<h2>Other measures help too</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most dramatic example of failing to protect schools comes from England. Schools reopened this September without a mask mandate and with very little investment in ventilation. </p>
<p>Within one month, <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/15october2021">random testing showed</a> that 8% of secondary school children and 3% of pre-primary and primary school children had an active infection.</p>
<p>This occurred despite <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/four-in-five-people-aged-16-and-over-vaccinated-with-both-doses">more than 80%</a> of people aged 16 and older having received two vaccine doses. Accordingly, infections in adults were much lower — around 1% or less in all age groups.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1448968034081705984"}"></div></p>
<p>This clearly shows that high levels of vaccination in adults aren’t sufficient to protect children, because children easily transmit the virus to each other.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-may-need-to-vaccinate-children-as-young-as-5-to-reach-herd-immunity-with-delta-our-modelling-shows-164942">We may need to vaccinate children as young as 5 to reach herd immunity with Delta, our modelling shows</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It also shows that infections in children don’t simply reflect overall community transmission. Schools play a key role in amplifying the spread of COVID-19.</p>
<h2>Why we need to protect children</h2>
<p>We need to prevent infections in children for a number of reasons. First, although most children with COVID-19 experience mild illness, a small proportion become <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-we-cant-treat-covid-19-like-the-flu-we-have-to-consider-the-lasting-health-problems-it-causes-164072">unwell enough to need hospitalisation</a>.</p>
<p>This might not sound like a big problem, but we can expect almost all of Australia’s 3.8 million children to eventually get infected if we don’t vaccinate them. A small proportion of this is a big number, and could <a href="https://journals.lww.com/jphmp/fulltext/2020/07000/covid_19_in_children_in_the_united_states_.9.aspx">easily overwhelm children’s hospitals</a>, which is what <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/09/01/1033233408/childrens-hospitals-coronavirus-covid-capacity-federal-help">happened in the US</a>.</p>
<p>Children who get COVID-19 can also be left with persistent symptoms, known as <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-mystery-of-long-covid-up-to-1-in-3-people-who-catch-the-virus-suffer-for-months-heres-what-we-know-so-far-161174">long COVID</a>. It’s not clear exactly how often this occurs, but the condition is common enough that England’s National Health Service has set up <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/2021/06/nhs-sets-up-specialist-young-peoples-services-in-100-million-long-covid-care-expansion/">15 long COVID clinics</a> for children. In Israel, long COVID clinics have <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/the-new-frontier-israeli-hopsitals-contend-with-long-covid-in-children-1.10280661">long waiting lists</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-we-cant-treat-covid-19-like-the-flu-we-have-to-consider-the-lasting-health-problems-it-causes-164072">No, we can’t treat COVID-19 like the flu. We have to consider the lasting health problems it causes</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>High levels of transmission in children also leads to educational disruption. Two weeks after the start of the autumn term in England, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/sep/21/more-than-100000-pupils-off-school-in-england-last-week-amid-covid-surge">more than 100,000 children were absent from school</a> due to confirmed or suspected COVID-19.</p>
<p>And <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-may-transmit-coronavirus-at-the-same-rate-as-adults-what-we-now-know-about-schools-and-covid-19-150523">children can easily transmit the coronavirus</a> to other children and to adults. This will lead to parents and others in the wider community getting sick, including some vaccinated people.</p>
<p>Although COVID-19 vaccines are very good at preventing severe disease, they’re not perfect, and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7031e2.htm">breakthrough infections can occur</a>. To keep breakthrough infections to a minimum, we must keep community transmission low. </p>
<h2>Here’s how we can make schools safer</h2>
<p>It’s not difficult to make schools much safer places, but it does require putting more emphasis on cleaning the air rather than cleaning our hands. This is because COVID-19 is caused by an <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.5694/mja2.51131">airborne virus</a> that can drift through the air like cigarette smoke.</p>
<p>Independent scientific advisory group OzSAGE recently launched <a href="https://ozsage.org/media_releases/protecting-children-from-covid-19-and-making-schools-and-childcare-safer/">comprehensive guidance</a> on how to prevent this type of transmission in schools.</p>
<p>OzSAGE recommends vaccinating children, their parents, and teachers as soon as possible; increasing ventilation and using <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7027e1.htm">HEPA air filters</a> to clean indoor air; and ensuring masks are worn by all staff and children who can safely wear them.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-vaccination-to-ventilation-5-ways-to-keep-kids-safe-from-covid-when-schools-reopen-166734">From vaccination to ventilation: 5 ways to keep kids safe from COVID when schools reopen</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These measures will likely have benefits beyond the pandemic. Stuffy air in classrooms isn’t good for learning, and <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/school-classroom-ventilation-fresh-air-fix/">academic outcomes have been shown to improve</a> with ventilation.</p>
<p>Cleaning the air is an investment for our children’s future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169928/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Zoë Hyde is a member of the OzSAGE independent scientific advisory group.</span></em></p>A new study in the United States found school reopening in late 2020 was associated with an increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths. But this was mostly the case where masks weren’t required.Zoë Hyde, Epidemiologist, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1695392021-10-17T11:56:29Z2021-10-17T11:56:29ZWhen parents are organizing school COVID-19 rapid tests, it’s a sign of government failure<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426414/original/file-20211014-19-1xqvuk5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C100%2C5517%2C3484&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A COVID-19 rapid test device kit seen at Humber River Hospital in Toronto last November.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The third school year to be marred by the COVID-19 pandemic is now underway, and many parents and guardians are <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/10/12/we-are-flying-blind-with-hundreds-of-covid-19-cases-in-ontario-schools-why-numbers-alone-dont-tell-the-whole-story.html">again worrying</a> about their children’s safety at school — especially those under the age of 12, who <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/vaccines/how-vaccinated.html#a2">aren’t yet eligible</a> for COVID-19 vaccinations.</p>
<p>Some Canadian parents have taken extraordinary steps to make their children’s learning environments safer. These measures show governments are failing to prioritize children in their pandemic responses and to fund safe, high-quality and equitable education.</p>
<h2>Parents organizing rapid testing</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-tells-agencies-covid-19-rapid-tests-are-only-for-workplaces/">Parents at Ontario public schools</a> recently tried to organize COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to screen children for the virus.</p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e3svZcqjZc">Toronto parents</a> <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/parents-at-ontario-school-create-their-own-covid-19-testing-program-1.5590809">drove hours to pick up the tests and assembled the kits at their kitchen tables</a> to distribute to families at their schools. <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/parents-at-ontario-school-create-their-own-covid-19-testing-program-1.5590809">The provincial government had been resisting calls</a> to provide rapid testing for COVID-19 at all public schools in the province. </p>
<h2>Private schools received tests</h2>
<p>Some private schools initially <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/private-schools-given-rapid-antigen-covid-19-tests-ontario-says-they-can-no-longer-be-used-on-students-1.5580560">received rapid tests</a> at the beginning of the school year. <a href="https://covid-19.ontario.ca/provincial-antigen-screening-program">An Ontario government-run portal</a> originally named private schools as eligible for rapid antigen surveillance screening. </p>
<p>In September, the <em>Toronto Star</em> reported that a ministry spokesperson said “private schools were going against public health guidance and abusing the system by planning to give the tests to children” and the government would “<a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/09/12/ontario-decision-to-claw-back-rapid-covid-19-tests-at-private-schools-leaves-parents-angry-and-confused.html">no longer provide free … tests to private schools for the asymptomatic surveillance of students</a>.” </p>
<p>Earlier this month, in response to news of parents of public school students <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-tells-agencies-covid-19-rapid-tests-are-only-for-workplaces">accessing the free rapid tests and using them to screen asymptomatic students, the province said this was also not allowed</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A bearded man at a microphone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426416/original/file-20211014-20-19tvzoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426416/original/file-20211014-20-19tvzoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426416/original/file-20211014-20-19tvzoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426416/original/file-20211014-20-19tvzoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426416/original/file-20211014-20-19tvzoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426416/original/file-20211014-20-19tvzoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426416/original/file-20211014-20-19tvzoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, has announced rapid testing would be available only for certain schools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Evan Buhler</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After parents and news outlets questioned why businesses — whose employees are eligible for vaccinations — could get rapid tests from the government but schoolchildren couldn’t, <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/rapid-covid-19-surveillance-testing-program-coming-to-select-ontario-schools-next-week-1.5611353">Ontario’s chief medical officer of health announced</a> the province would provide access to rapid tests only for schools deemed to be at high-risk for COVID-19 cases. </p>
<p>Even while many parents are following public health pandemic guidance, it’s understandable that trust between the province and parents has been severely strained. Last year Ontario’s <a href="https://www.tvo.org/article/ontario-needs-to-take-opening-schools-as-seriously-as-opening-bars">school safety plans appeared to lag behind concerns for the economy</a> and for keeping bars open. </p>
<p>And, during the last school year in Ontario, many parents were ill at ease when, <a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/08/24/ontario-nurses-call-for-smaller-class-sizes-use-of-masks-in-schools/">prior to vaccination rollouts, recommendations for smaller classes weren’t implemented</a> and teacher unions said the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2020/09/22/ontarios-back-to-school-plan-is-morally-unconscionable-teachers-tell-labour-board.html">back-to-school plan was dangerous</a>. Many parents are angry that <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/study">Ontario schools were closed longer</a> than in any other province, with parents and kids left to weather <a href="https://doi.org/10.47326/ocsat.2021.02.34.1.0">the effects</a>.</p>
<p>As of Oct. 13, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/10/13/ontario-reports-269-new-cases-of-covid-in-schools-and-704-schools-with-reported-cases.html">704 Ontario schools have reported COVID-19 cases</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/back-to-school-faqs-on-childrens-health-and-covid-19-delta-variant-preventing-infection-testing-and-international-examples-164684">Back-to-school FAQs on children’s health & COVID-19: Delta variant, preventing infection, testing and international examples</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Parents taking on extra work</h2>
<p>The parent-led rapid-testing programs aren’t the only example of parents taking on extra work to protect their children’s learning environments during the pandemic. </p>
<p>Some parents have simply deemed in-person schooling too unsafe for their children, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-ontario-back-to-school-covid-parents-immunocompromised-1.5669863">especially if a household member is immunocompromised</a>. </p>
<p>Some parents have <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7266080/homeschooling-amid-covid-19-pandemic-alberta/">turned to homeschooling</a>. <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/some-parents-are-choosing-pandemic-pods-over-sending-children-back-to-school-1.5045142">Others have created “pandemic pods”</a> — small groups of children who study together under the instruction of a parent or a hired tutor.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A parent and child in face masks arrive at a school yard" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426062/original/file-20211012-17-mrkcym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426062/original/file-20211012-17-mrkcym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426062/original/file-20211012-17-mrkcym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426062/original/file-20211012-17-mrkcym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426062/original/file-20211012-17-mrkcym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426062/original/file-20211012-17-mrkcym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426062/original/file-20211012-17-mrkcym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Expectations of parents have increased in recent decades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Increasing inequities</h2>
<p>Parents organizing rapid tests and other initiatives like pandemic pods may reduce the risks of coronavirus transmission for students. They may also worsen pre-existing inequities between the children of parents who have the resources and time to take on this extra work and those who don’t.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemic-pods-may-undermine-promises-of-public-education-145237">Education researchers</a> <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/09/27/in-a-mind-boggling-scramble-to-get-rapid-tests-in-schools-parents-and-advocates-are-asking-who-will-be-left-behind.html">and advocates</a> have pointed out the risks to public education posed by these moves towards private provision of education and associated public health services. </p>
<p><a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/parents-at-ontario-school-create-their-own-covid-19-testing-program-1.5590809">One rapid-test parent organizer</a> acknowledged it takes <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/parents-at-ontario-school-create-their-own-covid-19-testing-program-1.5590809">privilege to organize rapid testing and many communities wouldn’t be able to do it</a>, so having government or public health support would be helpful.</p>
<h2>Pressures on parents</h2>
<p>Social pressures on parents are nothing new. Many scholars have written about how demands on parents in North America and Europe have increased in recent decades. For example, <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300076523/cultural-contradictions-motherhood">sociologist Sharon Hays uses the term “intensive mothering”</a> to describe the expectation that mothers be deeply involved in their children’s upbringing and devote significant personal resources to mothering, even if they are simultaneously pursuing a career.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520271425/unequal-childhoods">Sociologist Annette Lareau has argued</a> that for middle-class parents, in particular, parenting involves actively advocating for their own children’s access to opportunities and resources. More broadly, <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374538477/mothers">humanities scholar Jacqueline Rose has suggested</a> that mothers are frequently treated as scapegoats and blamed for various social problems while also being prevailed upon to fix those problems.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1447879909196582916"}"></div></p>
<h2>Neoliberalism and COVID-19</h2>
<p>Scholars have also noted that various pandemic policies have <a href="https://doi.org/10.3167/dt.2020.070210">favoured the welfare of adults</a> while ignoring the needs of children. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-spotlights-equity-and-access-issues-with-childrens-right-to-play-137187">Coronavirus spotlights equity and access issues with children's right to play</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The current Canadian educational landscape is <a href="http://www.jceps.com/archives/10150">shaped by neoliberalism</a>, an ideology of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2015.1130026">individual responsibility, choice and competition for resources</a>, which leads to <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/in-the-ruins-of-neoliberalism/9780231193856">privatization of public services</a> like education. </p>
<p>Consequently, parents who have the time, energy and resources to do so may feel as if they have no choice but to address the shortcomings of public school safety plans.</p>
<h2>Governments need to provide safe education</h2>
<p>But governments cannot be allowed to simply stand back while parents create do-it-yourself solutions to address inadequate government policies. </p>
<p>Leaving parents to fill public health gaps in schools is unacceptable, due to the way it widens inequities: <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/news/toronto-public-health-releases-new-socio-demographic-covid-19-data/">Coronavirus infections have been higher within some racialized groups</a> and in <a href="https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/ncov/epi/2020/06/covid-19-epi-material-deprivation.pdf?la=en">communities with lower incomes</a>.</p>
<p>Pressures on parents during the pandemic have had several negative consequences, including <a href="https://www.camh.ca/en/camh-news-and-stories/covid-19-pandemic-adversely-affecting-mental-health-of-women-and-people-with-children">worsening their mental health</a> and increasing the obstacles experienced by <a href="https://thoughtleadership.rbc.com/covid-further-clouded-the-outlook-for-canadian-women-at-risk-of-disruption/">mothers, in particular, to continue their careers</a>.</p>
<p>Both parents and non-parents alike must press their governments to step up and fulfil <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90e02">the responsibilities they have to provide a safe</a> public education for all children — both now and in the future, when the pandemic is over.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169539/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren Jervis receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>Parents who have the time, energy and resources to make up for a lack of investment in public education and student safety during the pandemic may feel as if they have no choice but to do so.Lauren Jervis, SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Education, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1665622021-08-23T22:50:26Z2021-08-23T22:50:26ZChildren need playgrounds now, more than ever. We can reduce COVID risk and keep them open<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417314/original/file-20210823-23-r8xkas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-boy-playing-playground-outdoor-1365881276">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been a tough 18 months for Australian families and their children. We can’t underestimate the cumulative impact of parent and carer job losses, mental strain, working from home and remote learning. As developmental paediatricians we are increasingly concerned about how these have affected children’s development. </p>
<p>As a result of pandemic restrictions, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.590279/full">children all over the world</a> are doing significantly less <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33657464/">physical activity</a>, and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7708797/">spending more time</a> <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32458805/">sitting</a>. This is one reason playgrounds are so important for children right now. </p>
<p>Play is <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-the-kids-alright-social-isolation-can-take-a-toll-but-play-can-help-146023">vital</a> for children. It <a href="https://theconversation.com/let-them-play-kids-need-freedom-from-play-restrictions-to-develop-117586">improves their learning</a>, as well as social and physical development. Play also encourages <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-021-01193-2">development of coping skills</a>, which are critical in times of crisis.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417316/original/file-20210823-13-jzsfjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Little girl climbing playground wall with mask on." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417316/original/file-20210823-13-jzsfjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417316/original/file-20210823-13-jzsfjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417316/original/file-20210823-13-jzsfjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417316/original/file-20210823-13-jzsfjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417316/original/file-20210823-13-jzsfjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417316/original/file-20210823-13-jzsfjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417316/original/file-20210823-13-jzsfjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In these uncertain times, play can give kids a sense of normalcy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cute-asian-little-girl-wear-face-1755795119">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In these uncertain and restrictive times, playing outdoors also gives kids some <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cch.12832">sense of normalcy</a>.</p>
<p>Victoria <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/playground-transmission-probed-as-covid-19-spikes-among-children-20210817-p58jia.html">closed outdoor playgrounds last week</a> due to concerns about potential transmission. Closing playgrounds particularly impacts children living in medium- and high-density housing, with limited access to outdoor play spaces. These children tend to <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.642932/full">fall into lower-income brackets</a> and are already more vulnerable to the effects of social isolation.</p>
<p>While there may be some risks to keeping playgrounds open, these must be appropriately balanced with the overwhelming benefits playgrounds have for children’s development. There are certain precautions we can take to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission in playgrounds.</p>
<h2>What’s the research on playgrounds and transmission?</h2>
<p>To date, few studies have looked at the specific role of playgrounds in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. We found none that have been conducted with the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant. </p>
<p>Three studies focused on surface contamination — in <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/epidemiology-and-infection/article/presence-of-sarscov2-rna-on-playground-surfaces-and-water-fountains/173671106F0D9DB6CD0C71881C22A51D">Israel</a>, <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.14.21258894v1">Brazil</a> and <a href="https://ejournal.lucp.net/index.php/mjn/article/view/1337">Indonesia</a>. Some samples of playground surfaces (two out of 25 in the Israeli study) tested positive. The Brazil study (which collected samples in February 2021) identified toilets, ATMs, handrails, playground, and outdoor gym equipment as having the highest rates of viral contamination of all surfaces studied. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/high-priority-why-we-must-vaccinate-children-aged-12-and-over-now-166425">High priority: why we must vaccinate children aged 12 and over now</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But while the virus has been found on the surfaces, there was no clear evidence of whether this has led to transmission in playgrounds. The Indonesian study suggested transmission may be more likely if children share food or drinks. However, that study only looked at journals published in 2019 and 2020, so that doesn’t account for Delta.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417304/original/file-20210823-25-tzx4cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Kids walking on tyres in playground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417304/original/file-20210823-25-tzx4cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417304/original/file-20210823-25-tzx4cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417304/original/file-20210823-25-tzx4cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417304/original/file-20210823-25-tzx4cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417304/original/file-20210823-25-tzx4cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417304/original/file-20210823-25-tzx4cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417304/original/file-20210823-25-tzx4cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There is evidence for surface contamination in playgrounds, but not transmission.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kids-playing-playground-running-on-tires-578852695">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Two studies examined transmission in parks. In the <a href="https://covid-19.cochrane.org/studies/crs-18142107">United Kingdom</a> (with data collected June to November 2020) with two main findings. Less movement of people was associated with decreased transmission. This supported lockdowns. But the study also noted outdoor park use was associated with decreased case rates, especially in urban areas with low green space availability (including areas of higher density living). This is because parks offer an alternative to indoor spaces where transmission is higher. If parks close, then people congregate more indoors.</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/9xzgf.html">United States</a> (with data collected March to May 2020), park use increased with school closures. Interestingly, this was not associated with growth of COVID-19 levels, either at the time or in the following weeks.</p>
<p>So, there is surface contamination, but no published evidence of transmission. And outdoor use of parks is not necessarily associated with more cases. And in high density areas parks are an important space. </p>
<p>With the right strategies, we can minimise the risks in playgrounds while ensuring children don’t miss out on the vital need for play in a time of heightened stress and uncertainty.</p>
<h2>We can keep playgrounds safe</h2>
<p>Access to <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/6/6475">outdoor play</a> is essential for healthy child development. Indoor play <a href="https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12966-020-00987-8">does not appear</a> to equate with outdoor play in terms of benefits.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-the-kids-alright-social-isolation-can-take-a-toll-but-play-can-help-146023">Are the kids alright? Social isolation can take a toll, but play can help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To keep playgrounds safe for children, we must ensure children are central to our thinking. Both the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-safer-public-places-managing-public-outdoor-settings">United Kingdom</a> and the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/outdoor-activities.html">US offer guidelines</a> for COVID-safe playgrounds. These include play equipment being cleaned regularly, and children maintaining a distance of six feet (around 2 metres) from each other (clearly where possible). </p>
<p>Similar recommendations <a href="https://theconversation.com/heading-back-to-the-playground-10-tips-to-keep-your-family-and-others-covid-safe-148620">have been proposed in Australia</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>check current restrictions</p></li>
<li><p>stay home if unwell</p></li>
<li><p>socially distance</p></li>
<li><p>use disinfectant wipes on equipment</p></li>
<li><p>sanitise hands</p></li>
<li><p>avoid using shared taps or water fountains</p></li>
<li><p>remind children to avoid touching their faces</p></li>
<li><p>try to prevent physical contact between children as much as possible</p></li>
<li><p>avoid sharing toys</p></li>
<li><p>use the playground outside peak periods.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heading-back-to-the-playground-10-tips-to-keep-your-family-and-others-covid-safe-148620">Heading back to the playground? 10 tips to keep your family and others COVID-safe</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some of these are easy to implement than others but point to the need for thinking through what we could do in playgrounds to keep them safe and open. </p>
<p>Anecdotally, early childhood and school teachers, particularly in low income areas, are seeing children with less social, coping and physical skills after 18 months of recurrent lockdowns — a significant proportion of preschool children’s whole lives. </p>
<p>Paediatricians are seeing families where the parents are confused and frightened to take their children to playgrounds, even when lockdown closures end. Recurrent playground closures add to these fears.</p>
<p>Finally we need adults to help. They must also follow the restrictions in their state or territory. These include adhering to gathering limits, wearing face masks and socially distancing. In the COVID-19 world we will need to safeguard our children’s health and their development.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166562/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharon Goldfeld receives funding from NHMRC, ARC and state and federal government for research. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jill Sewell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There is some risk of COVID transmission in playgrounds, but the benefits of outdoor play, especially now, may outweigh the risks.Sharon Goldfeld, Director, Center for Community Child Health Royal Children's Hospital; Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne; Theme Director Population Health, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteJill Sewell, Paediatrician, Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children’s Hospital, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1628512021-08-12T20:02:26Z2021-08-12T20:02:26Z‘How outrageous and impossible is that?’: factoring in how year 12 students coped in lockdown is a grading nightmare for teachers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415332/original/file-20210809-23-1j4u1k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/concentrated-skilled-millennial-caucasian-businessman-glasses-1896451444">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Year 12 students in Sydney who live or go to school in an area affected by stage 4 lockdowns will be able to apply for <a href="https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/covid-19/coronavirus-advice/hsc-%20exams-and-major-projects/special-consideration-program">special consideration</a> if their oral or performance exam, or major project, was impacted by COVID.</p>
<p>Under the New South Wales <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-fair-hsc-year-12-students-given-special-consideration-for-covid-19-disruption-20210731-p58epe.html">COVID-19 special consideration program</a>, students’ work must have suffered as a direct result of the pandemic restrictions, <a href="https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/covid-19/coronavirus-advice/hsc-%20exams-and-major-projects/special-consideration-program">although</a> “detailed evidence for students who have been impacted by Level 4 restrictions will not be required”.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1421632014315253765"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-know-by-year-11-what-mark-students-will-get-in-year-12-do-we-still-need-a-stressful-exam-140746">We know by Year 11 what mark students will get in Year 12. Do we still need a stressful exam?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Victoria provided students with <a href="https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/supporting-students-through-pandemic">similar special consideration</a> in 2020 to avoid adverse impacts of COVID reflecting in ATAR rankings as “part of a wide-ranging process to ensure fair and accurate results in this unprecedented year of school”.</p>
<p>Special consideration will also apply to <a href="https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/news-and-events/latest-news/Novel%20coronavirus%20update/Pages/SchoolsandEducators.aspx">Victorian senior students</a> this year. </p>
<p>We interviewed ten year 12 teachers in Victoria to find out their experiences with assessment policies during lockdown in 2020. Our early findings show the teachers struggled to provide valid assessment outcomes while abiding by their <a href="https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/bullystoppers/Pages/prinduty.aspx">duty of care</a>, following <a href="https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/work-requirements-teachers/policy-and-guidelines/allocation-teacher-work">school procedures</a>, and protecting <a href="https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/privacy-information-sharing/policy">student privacy</a> in the digital context. </p>
<h2>How Victoria did it</h2>
<p>In August 2020, Victoria introduced a <a href="https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/HomePage.aspx">new consideration of educational disadvantage</a> process to take into account the impacts of lockdown on student learning that year. For scored assessments, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority advised teachers “consider whether a student’s performance on one or more school-based assessment tasks has been affected”. The impact had “to be above that which may have been addressed through school-based strategies”. </p>
<p>Teachers had to essentially determine what a student’s expected score or grade would be if they had not been impacted by the pandemic or bushfires. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1291658663329820673"}"></div></p>
<p>The teachers’ judgement was to be informed by a range of available evidence. This included a student statement about how they were affected over the course of the year. Students were not required to provide any evidence of hardship though the school had the right to ask for clarification. </p>
<h2>Ethical issues with remote learning</h2>
<p>Our study focused on ten teachers of VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education), which is the end of school certificate, equivalent of the HSC (High School Certificate) in NSW. The teachers came from different Victorian secondary schools — both government and independent. They taught subjects including English, maths, history, chemistry, arts and languages. </p>
<p>We asked about their experiences with assessment, including their contribution to the ongoing conversation on fair assessment in year 12 and their school’s relationship with the Victorian education department. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-learning-more-important-than-well-being-teachers-told-us-how-covid-highlighted-ethical-dilemmas-at-school-144854">Is learning more important than well-being? Teachers told us how COVID highlighted ethical dilemmas at school</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The new consideration of educational disadvantage process caused some complex ethical struggles. Teachers found it difficult to provide valid <a href="https://www.youthcentral.vic.gov.au/study-and-training/high-school/vce-the-victorian-certificate-of-education">scores for assessments at school</a> while also abiding by their <a href="https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/duty-of-care/policy">duty of care</a> to minimise the risk of mental and physical harm of students in a digital space. </p>
<p>One of the teachers, for instance, reluctantly ignored his student’s vaping during an online school assessment task:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m almost sure that I could see steam or something from like vaping […] I couldn’t prove it in a court of law, but I’m pretty sure it was nicotine or something similar, and that would never happen in a classroom […] so here is a question of duty of care […] if I had that kid in the class, then 100% I have a legal obligation to intervene and I’m responsible here, but in this case, he’s at home, I can’t prove it, other students see it and are affected by it, and I’m expected to assess this work […] how outrageous and impossible is that?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Reflecting on the new consideration of educational disadvantage process, another teacher said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>How are we supposed to evaluate the potential grade? And who am I to decide that x struggled more than y?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She admitted that in assessing students, she was relying on her “professional intuition” and ignoring the student statement document, which she said was a “sham”.</p>
<h2>Some school procedures hindered valid assessment</h2>
<p>Teachers also found it difficult to adhere to their school’s remote assessment policies, where they believed they prevented them from providing a fair assessment. </p>
<p>One teacher said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The state government announced that it was up to the school leaders to decide whether they wanted to offer onsite essential assessments to VCE kids […] and our principal said NO and kept the school closed the whole time, which really pissed off a lot of teachers who wanted to run assessment in person to provide meaningful feedback […] </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another teacher highlighted issues of student cheating: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our principal insisted on an online assessment [despite the fact that] students took screenshots of tests and iMessaged them around the cohort […] it was a disaster, we found out that more than 70% of our students had these images!</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Protecting students’ privacy at the expense of learning</h2>
<p>Some teachers described situations where their ethical obligation to protect student privacy conflicted with their ethical responsibility to provide accurate assessments. </p>
<p>One teacher, for example, said she was unable to provide “meaningful feedback” and follow ethical provisions of assessment when teaching students in an “off-camera” space intended to protect their privacy. </p>
<p>She was not sure whether her assessment feedback in class was helpful, considering she could not see the students’ responses. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/victorias-year-12-students-are-learning-remotely-but-they-wont-necessarily-fall-behind-143844">Victoria’s Year 12 students are learning remotely. But they won't necessarily fall behind</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The unfolding pandemic and environmental disasters such as the bushfires mean school closures will likely reoccur to varying degrees in the future.</p>
<p>Digital platforms for remote assessment and learning become central in these times. These platforms are creating complex ethical challenges of assessment that require, now more than ever, closer attention from educators, educational leaders and policymakers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162851/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christine Grové is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and College of Educational and Developmental Psychologists and an international affiliate of the American Psychological Association (APA) and a member of APA D15 (Educational Psychology) and APA D16 (School Psychology). Christine is Associate Editor of the Educational and Developmental Psychologist and a member of The United Nations Association of Australia Academic Network. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlo Perrotta and Ilana Finefter-Rosenbluh do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Year 12 students in NSW affected by lockdowns will be able to apply for special consideration for exams and special projects. Here’s what Victorian teachers said about a similar policy last year.Ilana Finefter-Rosenbluh, Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Monash UniversityCarlo Perrotta, Senior lecturer, Monash UniversityChristine Grové, Senior Lecturer and Educational and Developmental Psychologist, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1645862021-07-25T08:04:50Z2021-07-25T08:04:50ZCOVID-19 in children: the South African experience and way forward<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412145/original/file-20210720-25-15016mo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">From the outset, communities were concerned about the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on children.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Roger Sedres/Gallo Images via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since its emergence in late 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has caused illness (COVID-19) and death in all countries in the world. The restrictions put in place to reduce the spread of this virus have devastated economies and livelihoods the world over. By the end of June 2021, the World Health Organisation <a href="https://covid19.who.int/">estimated</a> that there had been 180.4 million cases of COVID-19 and 3.9 million associated deaths globally.</p>
<p>From the outset, communities were concerned about the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on children. This was justifiable because many other respiratory viruses such as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus disproportionately affect children. With their immature and developing immune systems children have larger amounts of virus in their respiratory tract and release the virus from there for longer durations. This puts them at the centre of transmission of those viruses – to each other at schools and to adults and siblings at home. It was not surprising that early interventions to delay the spread of COVID-19 included shutting down schools. </p>
<p>But COVID-19 has bucked this trend of affecting children more than adults. </p>
<p>SARS-CoV-2 is known to infect children of all ages, from newborns to older adolescents and teens. But children have <a href="https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/4/1/e000722">not been the drivers</a> of the COVID-19 pandemic to date. </p>
<p>This is because children are less likely to: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>be <a href="https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/4/1/e000722">infected</a> with the SARS-CoV-2 virus when exposed to it; </p></li>
<li><p>develop <a href="https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/5/1/e001063">symptomatic disease</a> when infected;</p></li>
<li><p>be hospitalised or die from COVID-19 when they do develop <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/article-abstract/2779416">severe disease</a> compared to adults; and</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ocean/aap/2021/00000042/00000001/art00004">transmit</a> the SARS-CoV-2 virus to others. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.nicd.ac.za/diseases-a-z-index/covid-19/surveillance-reports/monthly-covid-19-in-children/">surveillance data</a> in South Africa indicate that this lower risk of infection, disease, death or transmission experienced by children is age-dependent. Among children, the likelihood of infection, disease or death generally increases with age. Older teens and adolescents are acquiring COVID-19 at rates similar to adults in some instances. This routine surveillance has been in place since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim is to monitor disease trends in children and inform policy around prevention, care and treatment for children. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-south-africas-teachers-brought-to-the-virtual-classroom-during-covid-19-147306">What South Africa's teachers brought to the virtual classroom during COVID-19</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The South African experience</h2>
<p>By <a href="https://sacoronavirus.co.za/category/daily-cases/page/2/">mid-June 2021</a>, South Africa had conducted 12.3 million tests and detected 1.8 million cases. Children <a href="https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/COVID-19-in-children-surveillance-report_5-JULY-2021.pdf">19 years or younger</a> accounted for 13.4% of tests conducted, 10.2% of new cases reported, 4.2% of COVID-19 associated hospital admissions and 0.7% of COVID-19 associated deaths. This is despite children this age accounting for <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0302/P03022020.pdf">36.6%</a> of the South African population. </p>
<p>This age group was 3.7 times less likely to test for COVID-19, 5.7 times less likely to test positive for COVID-19, 13.3 times less likely to be admitted to hospital with COVID-19 and 6.7 times less likely to die in hospital once admitted compared to adults older than 19 years. </p>
<p>The data to date has not shown or suggested an association between case or admission rates with the opening and closing of schools in the country. </p>
<p>Given the adverse <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/considerations-for-school-related-public-health-measures-in-the-context-of-covid-19">social and psychological impacts</a> of closures on schools, it is encouraging to know that schools are not driving the COVID-19 pandemic. They can <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/considerations-for-school-related-public-health-measures-in-the-context-of-covid-19">safely remain open</a> provided there is implementation of and adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions for COVID-19 prevention.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-african-countries-can-reform-education-to-get-ahead-after-pandemic-school-closures-163935">How African countries can reform education to get ahead after pandemic school closures</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some groups <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/article-abstract/2780706">among children</a> experience <a href="https://www.pediatric.theclinics.com/article/S0031-3955(20)30107-3/fulltext">higher rates of illness</a> and these bear more discussion. </p>
<p>First, the <a href="https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/COVID-19-in-children-surveillance-report_5-JULY-2021.pdf">increased case rates</a> in older teens and adolescents, at rates similar to adults older than 19 years in the third wave, requires monitoring. Since the onset of the third wave to the peak, the fraction of all COVID-19 cases aged 19 years or younger was averaging 14.6% as opposed to around 9% in the first and second waves. Half of the cases were occurring in older teens and adolescents 15-19 years, bringing the case rate in this group on par with adults older than 19 years. </p>
<p>This could have been as a result of: </p>
<ul>
<li>generally <a href="https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/COVID-19-in-children-surveillance-report_5-JULY-2021.pdf">increased testing in children</a> in the third wave. More testing would pick up more cases, including mild or asymptomatic ones. </li>
<li>increased testing in response to cluster outbreaks in schools, leading to more testing among symptomatic or mildly symptomatic children and adolescents</li>
<li>increasing <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africans-are-keener-to-get-vaccinated-but-many-still-need-to-be-convinced-164350">vaccination rates</a> among adults, leaving younger individuals contributing more cases; and</li>
<li>the <a href="https://theconversation.com/pasha-113-covid-19-the-delta-variant-and-south-africas-vaccination-problems-163748">Delta variant</a> itself – which may have a greater predilection for children, although there is not yet any conclusive data to support this.</li>
</ul>
<p>Second, infants under the age of one have experienced higher hospital admission rates compared to other children, especially after the second wave. In our most <a href="https://www.nicd.ac.za/diseases-a-z-index/covid-19/surveillance-reports/monthly-covid-19-in-children/">recent report</a>, infants made up 2.2% of cases 19 years or younger but contributed 19.3% of the admissions and 31.8% of deaths in this group. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-school-closures-in-south-africa-and-their-impact-on-children-141832">COVID-19 school closures in South Africa and their impact on children</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is unclear why these infants are admitted to start with or what the causes of deaths are. Generally infants are much more likely to be admitted with non-COVID-19 conditions compared to older children. There is routine testing of all admissions at many hospitals, so it is possible that many of these admissions are for other reasons, with COVID-19 an incidental finding. More data are needed to investigate reasons for admission in this age group. </p>
<p>Lastly, children with underlying conditions made up 19.3% of children admitted with COVID-19 but 56% of those who died. The most commonly reported underlying conditions among those admitted were chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, HIV and tuberculosis (active and previous). HIV, diabetes and tuberculosis were common among those who died.</p>
<h2>What about vaccination?</h2>
<p>South African children are not yet <a href="https://www.gov.za/covid-19/vaccine/vaccine">eligible</a> for COVID-19 vaccination and may not be for a while. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-teens-and-covid-vaccines-where-is-the-evidence-at-and-when-will-kids-in-australia-be-eligible-160625">reasons for this include</a> the lower risk of disease and the need to prioritise the elderly; limited information on the efficacy and safety of the vaccines in children; and limited number of vaccines which are licensed for use in children.</p>
<p>Some countries in Europe and North America have opened up vaccination to children 12-16 years although coverage in this age group is still low. As more children are vaccinated in these countries, more data on side effects and effectiveness will be collected and many lessons to inform rollout in South Africa will be learnt. </p>
<p>In the South African setting, there is a case for the expedited vaccination of children with underlying conditions and older teens and adolescents based on burden of cases and hospitalisations in these two groups respectively. </p>
<p>Until then the onus is on everyone to ensure vaccination of adults around children to achieve herd immunity, and adherence to non-pharmaceutical intervention to reduce transmission in the community and spillover into schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164586/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cheryl Cohen receives funding from United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and Wellcome Trust UK.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicola Chiwandire, Sibongile Walaza, Tendesayi Kufa-Chakezha, and Waasila Jassat do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Schools are not driving the COVID-19 pandemic and can safely remain open provided people stick to the non-pharmaceutical interventions for COVID-19 prevention.Tendesayi Kufa-Chakezha, Epidemiologist and Public Health Specialist, National Institute for Communicable DiseasesCheryl Cohen, co-head of the Centre for Respiratory Disease and Meningitis, National Institute for Communicable DiseasesSibongile Walaza, Medical Epidemiologist at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases and Lecturer at the School of Public Health, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1616572021-05-28T04:16:21Z2021-05-28T04:16:21ZWe need to prioritise teachers and staff for COVID vaccination — and stop closing schools with every lockdown<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403039/original/file-20210527-15-1u2lr6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1000%2C667&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/female-teacher-wearing-face-mask-while-1796624458">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Yesterday Victoria announced a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-27/victoria-covid-cases-melbourne-outbreak-lockdown-restrictions/100169172">snap lockdown</a> to last at least seven days starting from 11:59pm last night.</p>
<p>As part of the lockdown, <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-victoria-lockdown-school-closures-education-what-parents-students-need-to-know/e73be870-8184-4f63-bc1a-14dbba9ed29d">schools will close</a> and move to remote learning, and today is a pupil-free day while schools prepare to teach online. Only the children of authorised workers and vulnerable kids will continue to be able to learn in person.</p>
<p>It’s another episode of schools being closed seemingly as par for the course in any COVID-19 outbreak. While communities are concerned about the outbreak, the inclusion of schools in the lockdown should be as an extension of controls if transmission is more widespread, <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-is-it-safe-for-kids-to-go-back-to-school-and-what-about-the-new-mutant-strain-152979">rather than the immediate response</a>. </p>
<p>Despite good evidence, the previously developed <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-cant-close-schools-every-time-theres-a-covid-outbreak-our-traffic-light-system-shows-what-to-do-instead-158214">traffic light system</a> isn’t being used for schools during outbreaks in Australia. There’s currently no national plan to guide states and territories on how to manage schools during COVID outbreaks, and to advise them on the evidence and best-practice. This needs to change. </p>
<p>We argue schools should be prioritised to remain open, with transmission mitigation strategies in place, during low levels of community transmission.</p>
<p>What’s more, if schools are a priority, then vaccinating all school staff is something we should be urgently doing as part of these strategies.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1397691097124524034"}"></div></p>
<h2>Schools should be a priority</h2>
<p>As paediatricians and vaccine experts, we believe kids’ well-being and learning should be among the top priorities in any outbreak.</p>
<p>We advocate for strategies to reduce the risk of COVID transmission in schools during outbreaks, including measures like:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>minimising parents and other adults on the school grounds, including dropping kids off at the school gate rather than entering the school</p></li>
<li><p>parents, teachers, other school staff, and high-school students wearing masks</p></li>
<li><p>focusing on hand hygiene</p></li>
<li><p>enhanced physical distancing</p></li>
<li><p>good ventilation in classrooms and school buildings.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>On top of this, we believe if schools, teachers and kids are viewed as a priority by decision makers, then vaccinating all school staff should urgently be considered. </p>
<p>Vaccinating all school staff would reassure those who have concerns about being at work in a school environment during a lockdown, and potentially lower the risk of spread in schools even further. This would increase the confidence in schools remaining open.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1397708843400851456"}"></div></p>
<h2>Kids are not major drivers of transmission</h2>
<p>Kids can and do get sick with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, though they <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-kids-tend-to-have-milder-covid-this-new-study-gives-us-a-clue-155555">tend to get less severe disease</a>.</p>
<p>The best available <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02973-3">evidence</a> <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/transmission_k_12_schools.html">suggests</a> kids and schools are not major drivers of transmission, even though children can transmit the virus.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-kids-tend-to-have-milder-covid-this-new-study-gives-us-a-clue-155555">Why do kids tend to have milder COVID? This new study gives us a clue</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Snap lockdowns have become the new norm in Australia for managing COVID transmission emerging from hotel quarantine. We strongly argue snap lockdowns shouldn’t automatically include schools. <a href="https://www.reachcentered.org/publications/the-effects-of-school-reopenings-on-covid-19-hospitalizations">Data from overseas</a>, where widespread community transmission is occurring, suggests schools remaining open with public health measures in place hasn’t changed transmission rates very much.</p>
<p>We advocate for schools to remain open, and if a student or teacher attends a school while infectious, the measures in place to test, trace, and isolate the primary and secondary contacts are activated. We have done it before. NSW was able to <a href="https://www.ncirs.org.au/sites/default/files/2020-10/COVID-19%20Transmission%20in%20educational%20settings%20in%20NSW%20Term%203%20report_0.pdf">continue with face-to-face learning</a> and had 88% attendance in term three 2020 even with low levels of community transmission.</p>
<p>When there’s rampant community spread like some countries overseas, this changes the risk-benefit equation and school closures may be needed. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-cant-close-schools-every-time-theres-a-covid-outbreak-our-traffic-light-system-shows-what-to-do-instead-158214">traffic light system</a> has been developed for exactly this scenario.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-cant-close-schools-every-time-theres-a-covid-outbreak-our-traffic-light-system-shows-what-to-do-instead-158214">We can't close schools every time there's a COVID outbreak. Our traffic light system shows what to do instead</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But with an outbreak of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-28/victoria-covid-cases-numbers-restrictions/100172268">30 cases so far</a>, we don’t think Victoria is near the flexion point where school closures are necessary. If there were many more, the risk equation would change, and the traffic light system could be applied.</p>
<p>Also, there’s a different risk equation for primary and secondary school students. Primary school kids are <a href="https://www.mcri.edu.au/sites/default/files/media/covid_in_schools_report_final_10112020.pdf">much less likely</a> to transmit the virus than secondary school students. Daycare and early childhood centres remain open in Victoria. The evidence supports at least primary schools remaining open too.</p>
<h2>We need a national plan on schools</h2>
<p>Our concern is that jurisdictions are reaching for school closures as an almost predictable part of lockdown, without relying on a national plan to guide these decisions. The only current guidelines are the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee’s (AHPPC) <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/news/australian-health-protection-principal-committee-ahppc-updated-statement-on-minimising-the-potential-risk-of-covid-19-transmission-in-schools">statement from February</a> on reducing the risk of COVID spread in schools.</p>
<p>Only about <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations?country=AUS">13% of Australians</a> have received at least one COVID vaccine dose, and ongoing community COVID outbreaks are expected for at least the next year or more. So, we need a proper national plan on COVID and schools. States and territories would benefit from a national plan, as they could lean on it to make informed decisions on schools during outbreaks.</p>
<h2>School closures cause enormous strain</h2>
<p>Whenever school closures are announced, we hear many parents sigh and say things like “I won’t be able to get any work done!”. Indeed, school closures put enormous strain on families, especially working parents with pre-school or primary school aged children. Younger children require some supervision and are less likely to have the skills necessary to get value out of online learning, compared to older kids in the latter stages of high school who may be more independent.</p>
<p>Challenges might also include poor or no internet, not being able to have relevant supervision, or not having the right devices.</p>
<p>Home learning has a substantial impact on children’s well-being and mental health. Over 50% of Victorian parents who participated in <a href="https://www.rchpoll.org.au/category/polls/">a Royal Children’s Hospital poll in August 2020</a> reported homeschooling had a negative impact on their kids’ emotional well-being during the second wave in 2020. This was <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/school-closures-do-more-harm-to-children-than-the-virus-experts-warn-20210527-p57vl6.html">compared to 26.7% in other states</a>. Jurisdictions keep playing into this risk if they keep closing schools.</p>
<p>It’s an absolute priority we find and use ways to support kids to continue face-to-face learning in times of low community transmission, especially primary schools. One important way to do this is to prioritise teachers and other school staff for COVID vaccines.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/children-teens-and-covid-vaccines-where-is-the-evidence-at-and-when-will-kids-in-australia-be-eligible-160625">Children, teens and COVID vaccines: where is the evidence at, and when will kids in Australia be eligible?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161657/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asha Bowen receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and WA Health Department. She is affiliated with the Australasian Society of Infectious Diseases (ASID), and is Chair of the Paediatric group of ASID. She is a member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians COVID-19 Expert Reference Group and Co-Chairs the Paediatric and Adolescent Panel of the COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Archana Koirala receives funding from the NSW Department of Health, University of Sydney and Commonwealth of Australia.
She is affiliated with the Australasian Society of Infectious Diseases (ASID), and is a member of the Paediatric and Vaccine group of ASID. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margie Danchin receives funding from the NHMRC, WHO, Victorian and Commonwealth Departments of Health and holds an MCRI clinician scientist fellowship. She is Chair, Collaboration on Social Science and Immunisation (COSSI).</span></em></p>It’s an absolute priority we find and use ways to support kids to continue face-to-face learning in times of low community transmission, especially primary schools.Asha Bowen, Program Head of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, and Head of Skin Health, Telethon Kids InstituteArchana Koirala, Paediatrician and Infectious Diseases Specialist, University of SydneyMargie Danchin, Paediatrician at the Royal Childrens Hospital and Associate Professor and Clinician Scientist, University of Melbourne and MCRI, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1573092021-04-15T19:52:07Z2021-04-15T19:52:07ZHomeschooling boomed last year. But these 4 charts show it was on the rise before COVID<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395182/original/file-20210415-13-17p7g2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hardworking-school-kid-boy-making-homework-1929800849">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-homeschooling-and-should-i-be-doing-that-with-my-kid-during-the-coronavirus-lockdown-135027">Home education</a>, sometimes called homeschooling, is when children are educated outside a formal institution like a school.</p>
<p>Parents of home-educated children are wholly responsible for facilitating their child’s learning. This is different to <a href="https://theconversation.com/homeschooling-is-on-the-rise-in-australia-who-is-doing-it-and-why-110268">distance education</a>, where a student is enrolled in a school and taught by a teacher, but the lessons are delivered remotely (similar to what happened during lockdown when schools were closed).</p>
<p>Home education is legal across Australia. Each state or territory education department requires parents to register. There have been reports <a href="https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/brisbane-mum-of-seven-on-why-covid-lockdown-inspired-her-to-homeschool-for-good-c-1053198">more students have registered for home education</a> due to the pandemic. But home education was actually on the rise in Australia well before COVID.</p>
<h2>Growth in homeschooling during 2020</h2>
<p>The numbers of families registering for home education in 2020 — the year of school lockdowns – was particularly strong in the heavily populated eastern states.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/426e1f11-5752-4c1c-bdcc-68b880c0e0b3/home-schooling-data-reports-to-2020.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=%2031">New South Wales</a> and <a href="https://www.vrqa.vic.gov.au/aboutus/Pages/homeschoolingstatistics2020.aspx">Victoria</a>, the number of students being home educated increased by 20% in 2020 (1,224 extra children) compared with 2019. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/home-education-registrations">Queensland</a>, there was a 26% jump in students registered for home education.</p>
<p>The number of registered home-educated students in NSW, Victoria and Queensland is larger than any one school in those states. For example, <a href="https://varsitycollege.eq.edu.au/">Varisty College</a> on Queensland’s Gold Coast is one of Queensland’s largest schools with over 3,000 students. But home education registrations account for 800 more students.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thinking-of-switching-to-homeschooling-permanently-after-lockdown-here-are-5-things-to-consider-155381">Thinking of switching to homeschooling permanently after lockdown? Here are 5 things to consider</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Over the last ten years, there has been a steady increase in the number of home-educated students across the country. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="o7XFR" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/o7XFR/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>There are now more than 26,000 registered home-educated students in Australia, around a third of the ACT’s total school-aged population.</p>
<p>This number may underestimate how many students are actually being home educated. Some states and territories limit registration to the compulsory school ages (usually six to 17), so they don’t count younger and older students. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="0wY6h" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/0wY6h/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>It is also well recognised a proportion of home-educated students <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-28/thousands-of-parents-illegally-home-schooling/3798008">are not registered</a>.</p>
<p>However, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT all allow children to be registered for part-time home education and part-time school attendance — so these students are counted twice.</p>
<h2>The proportion of homeschooled kids has grown, too</h2>
<p>It is not just the overall numbers of home-educated students that has grown. The percentage of home-educated students as a proportion of the total student population has also risen. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="qra5u" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/qra5u/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>New South Wales and Victoria have the highest population of school students in the country — at 1,248,994 and 1,013,768 in 2020 respectively. The proportion of home-educated students in these states are 6 per 1,000 school students in NSW and 7 in Victoria. </p>
<p>And while Tasmania only had 83,175 school students in 2020 (the second lowest population of school students after the Northern Territory), its proportion of home-educated students is the highest in the country — 14 per 1,000. This is in comparison to the average of 6 home-educated students per 1,000 school students across Australia.</p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="QFxHi" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/QFxHi/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>While these proportions are still relatively small, they are almost double what they were six years ago. </p>
<p>We don’t know precisely why the proportion of home-educated students varies so much between states and territories. It may be that a limited school choice in regional and remote areas of sparsely populated states, like Western Australia, may encourage home education. Or remote living in states like the Northern Territory may make it easier to “fly under the radar” and not register. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/homeschooling-is-on-the-rise-in-australia-who-is-doing-it-and-why-110268">Homeschooling is on the rise in Australia. Who is doing it and why?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The availability of support for students with special needs and the ease of access to distance education schools may also play a role. </p>
<p>Another factor could be the way different states and territories manage their registration systems.</p>
<p>Unlike most other states, <a href="https://oer.tas.gov.au/news/blog/">Tasmania has a history of proactive engagement</a> with the home education community. The assessors have extensive knowledge of home education, which may instil confidence in the assessments. </p>
<p>It also means assessors can give some support, providing a direct benefit to being registered. </p>
<h2>We don’t know enough about homeschooling</h2>
<p>Families who are home educating are an under-researched group. </p>
<p>There’s evidence an increasing number of students with special educational needs are being home educated. About <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/inquiries/Pages/inquiry-details.aspx?pk=2416#tab-submissions">20% of parents who made a submission</a> to the recent NSW inquiry into students with disabilities were home educating due to mainstream schools having failed to meet their children’s needs. However, these students are not counted in the government’s <a href="https://www.nccd.edu.au/">Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on Students with a Disability</a>. </p>
<p>Although research suggests mental health conditions such as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220671.2015.1116055?casa_token=obRG4hcyWcEAAAAA%3AHX6ReV7rwed8T3GGju_LekKFn8EjCzyDRg8XT8RKkKLJUeZmE_PgQ1jeVup-7h1ZqUorEwEy229J8Q">anxiety</a> or <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41887517?seq=1">depression</a> can be catalysts for parents removing children from school, this too has not been quantified. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-want-to-send-the-kids-back-to-school-why-not-try-unschooling-at-home-136256">Don't want to send the kids back to school? Why not try unschooling at home?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We also need to better understand how to help students who may have a series of needs that are more complex than schools could meet.</p>
<p>Similarly, the benefits, drawbacks and best practice of part-time schooling along with part-time home education in Australia have not been researched. Flexibility might be a solution that may bridge the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03055698.2018.1509786?casa_token=zjPV04hIT3UAAAAA%3A56k1rgBpyIvrdNnK5G4raoN7hjuCs-TbR5gxzENa66oXGavT1z6Z-r8x8hh2_XshhBmr1BnhOg9ntQ">divide</a> between schools and home education to best meet children’s needs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157309/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca English is a member of the Home Education Association. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karleen Gribble is a member of the Home Education Association</span></em></p>In New South Wales and Victoria the number of students being home educated increased by 20% in 2020 (1,224 extra children) compared with 2019. But the rise has been evidenced for a decade.Rebecca English, Lecturer in Education, Queensland University of TechnologyKarleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1582142021-03-31T03:33:52Z2021-03-31T03:33:52ZWe can’t close schools every time there’s a COVID outbreak. Our traffic light system shows what to do instead<p>Brisbane has entered a snap lockdown to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission from a quarantine breach. Schools — including out-of-hours school care — across Greater Brisbane <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-30/brisbane-lockdown-rules-mask-essential-shopping-school-gathering/100037408">will be closed</a> until the second term starts on April 19, except for vulnerable children and children of essential workers.</p>
<p>Daycare centres will also only be open for vulnerable children and those of essential workers. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1376455680450772992"}"></div></p>
<p>Snap lockdowns are the new normal for managing hotel quarantine breaches. These have previously occurred in New South Wales, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-18/regional-south-australia-prepares-for-covid-19-six-day-lockdown/12896580">South Australia</a>, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-17/victorias-snap-coronavirus-lockdown-to-end-at-midnight/13162218">Victoria</a> and <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/perth-coronavirus-australia-states-respond-to-wa-covid19-lockdown-nsw-victoria-queensland/c873904a-33b7-457b-856a-2fd9e89d9453">Western Australia</a> bringing four capital cities and parts of Sydney to a halt. </p>
<p>While there are processes in place to try and prevent quarantine breaches happening again, this issue will be with us for some time until the COVID-19 vaccination program reaches high coverage — with a vaccine effective against variants. Soon international travel will open up as well, increasing the risk despite the use of vaccination passports. </p>
<p>We need to learn to live with COVID-19 as we continue efforts to vaccinate Australians. Closing daycare centres and schools has a significant effect on the mental health, well-being and learning of children and young people. We are seeing the <a href="https://www.rchpoll.org.au/polls/covid-19-pandemic-effects-on-the-lives-of-australian-children-and-families/">short term effects</a> and can only guess the long-term effects of this for now, but emerging research is <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1087054720978549">concerning</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-ww2-to-ebola-what-we-know-about-the-long-term-effects-of-school-closures-146396">From WW2 to Ebola: what we know about the long-term effects of school closures</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In Australia, where there is almost no community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 we need a layered strategy — depending on the amount of community transmission – to ensure the response isn’t the same every time with each snap lockdown: closing schools. </p>
<p>Separating schools from the snap lockdown response is possible. Here’s how to do it.</p>
<h2>A traffic-light system</h2>
<p>In February 2021, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) released <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/news/australian-health-protection-principal-committee-ahppc-updated-statement-on-minimising-the-potential-risk-of-covid-19-transmission-in-schools">guidelines on minimising the risk of COVID transmission in schools</a>. These state that with COVIDsafe plans in place, schools remain safe places with students and staff “continuing to enjoy the benefits of learning on site”. </p>
<p>While this is national advice, states have failed to incorporate it into their lockdown planning. </p>
<p>International organisations such as <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-schools">World Health Organization</a>, <a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-unicef-and-who-issue-guidance-ensure-schools-are-safe-during-covid-19-pandemic">UNESCO and UNICEF</a> recommend taking into account the level and intensity of community transmission of COVID-19 before deciding to close schools or childcare centres. They all state closing schools “should be regarded as a measure of last resort”. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/schools.html">US Centers for Disease Control</a> recommends plans to be adapted depending on the level of viral transmission in the school and throughout the community, as this may rapidly change. </p>
<p>We did a <a href="https://www.mcri.edu.au/sites/default/files/media/covid_in_schools_report_final_10112020.pdf">review into COVID-19 transmission in Victorian schools</a> last year and found schools could be re-opened safely towards the end of Victoria’s months’ long lockdown. Our review included transmission data between January 25 2020 (the date of the first known case in Victoria) and August 31 2020.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/behind-victorias-decision-to-open-primary-schools-to-all-students-report-shows-covid-transmission-is-rare-147006">Behind Victoria's decision to open primary schools to all students: report shows COVID transmission is rare</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our analysis found children younger than 13 transmit the virus less than teenagers and adults. In instances where the first case in a school was a child under 13, a subsequent outbreak (two or more cases) was uncommon. A <a href="https://www.ncirs.org.au/covid-19-in-schools">New South Wales report</a> also found the transmission rate in schools to be rare (less than 1%). </p>
<p>Our recommendations are very similar to the US Centers for Disease Control school guidelines principles. </p>
<p>Standard precautions at school, when there is no community transmission should include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>staying home if unwell and getting tested</p></li>
<li><p>physical distancing between staff </p></li>
<li><p>testing, tracing and isolation if a case at school is confirmed</p></li>
<li><p>hand hygiene and cough etiquette</p></li>
<li><p>enhanced cleaning</p></li>
<li><p>improved ventilation. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>In the case of a snap lockdown in response to a single case or small case cluster, when there is a breach of quarantine, and to avoid community transmission, the measures should be layered depending on the degree of community transmission and targeted to affected geographical areas. </p>
<p>Schools should stay open, but measures should be dialled up (to yellow, as below) to include masks for all teachers and staff, and secondary school students, enhanced physical distancing and no singing, indoor sports or wind instruments. Movement of adults around the school at drop-off and pick up should be limited.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392698/original/file-20210331-21-x8ty2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Older students at work in a classroom with masks on." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392698/original/file-20210331-21-x8ty2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392698/original/file-20210331-21-x8ty2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392698/original/file-20210331-21-x8ty2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392698/original/file-20210331-21-x8ty2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392698/original/file-20210331-21-x8ty2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392698/original/file-20210331-21-x8ty2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392698/original/file-20210331-21-x8ty2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">During a snap lockdown in the community, high school students can be asked to wear masks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/high-school-student-taking-notes-while-1821464753">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If community transmission becomes more extensive and the initial three- to-five day lockdown has not contained the outbreak, measures should be dialled up again (orange) in the affected geographic areas. </p>
<p>Reducing class sizes in secondary school may prevent school transmission as teenagers seem to transmit to a similar degree as adults. But we suggest reducing class sizes for years 7-10 alone (such as having only 50% of students attending school in these year levels) which reduces the density of students and preserves face-to-face schooling for years 11 and 12 students who may have exam pressures. </p>
<p>Only when community transmission is at very high levels causing the lockdown to be extended, and community cases are rapidly rising, should we consider school closures altogether. </p>
<p>But again, this should only be for the affected geographic areas.</p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="yeF6f" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/yeF6f/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<h2>We know this works</h2>
<p>School mitigation measures such as the ones we have outlined have been successful in <a href="https://www.ncirs.org.au/covid-19-in-schools">New South Wales</a> and <a href="https://www.mcri.edu.au/sites/default/files/media/covid_in_schools_report_final_10112020.pdf">Victoria</a> during low and moderate transmission, respectively. This has also been successful in primary schools in <a href="https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.26.1.2002011">Norway</a>, and in <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7004e3.htm">kindergartens to the final year of school in the US</a>. </p>
<p>Adults can rationalise and regulate their emotions but a snap lockdown can be very distressing for children and adolescents, many of whom are still struggling, exacerbated by the very difficult process of managing uncertainty, <a href="https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ag2r7">again</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-the-kids-alright-social-isolation-can-take-a-toll-but-play-can-help-146023">Are the kids alright? Social isolation can take a toll, but play can help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We need to change this trajectory to prioritise children’s mental health and learning. Prior to the next snap lockdown, all states and territories need to develop a plan to minimise disruption and stress on schools and families. Children will disproportionately bear the ongoing burden of COVID-19 through school shut down and parental stress. We should do our very best to minimise this into the future. </p>
<p>Recommendations need to be clear as to when to close only hot-spot schools and when to keep all schools open but dial up all the mitigation strategies. This would keep most kids safe, at school and protected from the impacts of school closures.</p>
<p>It is essential state and territory health departments work with their respective education departments and the teachers unions to develop plans now, that can be rolled out immediately and as required, based on the best evidence.</p>
<p>Given it is clear we will live with COVID-19 for the foreseeable future, planning to keep schools and childcare centres open during the pandemic should be an urgent priority. School closures should not be a reactionary measure but a last resort. Our kids depend on it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158214/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona Russell receives funding from NHMRC, WHO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Wellcome Trust, and DFAT. In 2020 she received funding from the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services to undertake an analysis of Victorian COVID-19 school outbreak data.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asha Bowen receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margie Danchin receives funding from NHMRC, Commonwealth and State Departments of Health, DFAT and WHO. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Archana Koirala and Sharon Goldfeld do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We need a layered strategy — depending on the amount of community transmission – to ensure the response isn’t the same every time with each snap lockdown: to close schools. Here’s how to do it.Fiona Russell, Senior Principal Research Fellow; paediatrician, The University of MelbourneArchana Koirala, Paediatrician and Infectious Diseases Specialist, University of SydneyAsha Bowen, Head, Skin Health, Telethon Kids InstituteMargie Danchin, Associate Professor, University of Melbourne, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteSharon Goldfeld, Director, Center for Community Child Health Royal Children's Hospital; Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne; Theme Director Population Health, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1549502021-02-17T03:50:30Z2021-02-17T03:50:30ZAustralian children are learning in classrooms with very poor air quality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384629/original/file-20210217-23-oftblj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-students-learning-classroom-717764539">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Victorian students are learning in classrooms with very poor air quality. Our year-long <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/about/schools-colleges/property-construction-and-project-management/research/research-centres-and-groups/sustainable-building-innovation-laboratory/projects/climate-change-innovation-grant">analysis of Victorian primary and secondary school classrooms</a> has found the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) often far exceeds the maximum acceptable standard.</p>
<p>Studies in other states have found similar levels of poor air quality in classrooms.</p>
<p>Elevated <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ina.12284">CO₂ concentrations</a> can cause headache, drowsiness and lethargy. Children under 15 are particularly <a href="https://www.who.int/ceh/publications/air-pollution-child-health/en/">vulnerable to poor air quality</a>. Pollutant exposure during developmental stages may produce lifelong issues such as respiratory infections.</p>
<p>Australian students spend at <a href="https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/school-hours/policy">least 25 hours in classrooms per week</a>, or in excess of 1,075 hours indoors, in school buildings, annually. Australia’s <a href="https://ncc.abcb.gov.au/ncc-online/NCC">National Construction Code (NCC)</a> specifies CO₂ concentration levels of less than 850 parts per million (ppm), averaged over eight hours, for acceptable air quality. </p>
<p>In our analysis, the CO₂ concentrations in Victorian classrooms ranged from 912 to 2,235 ppm. During certain times of occupied hours, levels reached up to 5,000 ppm.
These concentration levels indicate very poor ventilation and slow air exchange between indoor and outdoor air.</p>
<p>Good ventilation inside classrooms also protects students against <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.105832">airborne transmission of diseases</a> such as COVID-19. Improving ventilation inside classrooms will help <a href="https://schools.forhealth.org/risk-reduction-strategies-for-reopening-schools/">schools respond</a> to potential outbreaks.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/keeping-indoor-air-clean-can-reduce-the-chance-of-spreading-coronavirus-149512">Keeping indoor air clean can reduce the chance of spreading coronavirus</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is indoor air quality?</h2>
<p>Indoor air quality is a <a href="https://www.abcb.gov.au/Resources/Publications/Education-Training/Indoor-air-quality">measure or analysis</a> of the physical, chemical and microbiological makeup of the air in rooms. </p>
<p>Indoor air quality impacts health, comfort and performance. Breathing conditioned but re-circulated air continuously, without adequate fresh outdoor air, has been linked to reduced <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ina.12403">health</a> and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0668.2004.00320.x">school performance</a>. </p>
<p>Indoor air quality is usually maintained by controlling airborne pollutants (such as dust or carbon monoxide), introducing adequate outdoor air into, and distributing it throughout, the room and by maintaining acceptable temperature and relative humidity.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/bookstore/standards-62-1-62-2">prescribed standards</a> for minimum ventilation rates, which achieve indoor air quality. Good ventilation practices ensure <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ina.12206">adequate dilution of indoor air</a> and avoidance of build-up of airborne pollutants including viral contaminants. </p>
<p>Australian school design complies with the <a href="https://www.abcb.gov.au/Resources/Publications/Education-Training/Indoor-air-quality">National Construction Code</a>. This requires spaces be naturally or mechanically ventilated with outdoor air to maintain adequate air quality.</p>
<p>For natural ventilation, with a floor area requirement of 2 square metres (m²) per student, classroom window area (or other openings) for ventilation must be 12.5% of the classroom floor area. But there is no requirement nor directive on how much and how often these windows should be open.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384635/original/file-20210217-21-sldc3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="School bags on benches outside a classroom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384635/original/file-20210217-21-sldc3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384635/original/file-20210217-21-sldc3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384635/original/file-20210217-21-sldc3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384635/original/file-20210217-21-sldc3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384635/original/file-20210217-21-sldc3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384635/original/file-20210217-21-sldc3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384635/original/file-20210217-21-sldc3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indoor air must be regularly mixed with fresh outdoor air.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/authentic-school-grounds-backpacks-bags-piled-1847575507">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Opening windows may also not be possible during extreme weather conditions such as extreme heat, cold and thunderstorm asthma events. </p>
<p>For <a href="https://www.techstreet.com/standards/as-1668-2-2012?product_id=2066313">mechanically ventilated classrooms</a>, the same floor area of 2m² per student requires ventilation rates of 10-12 litre per second (L/s) of outdoor air per person.</p>
<p>A typical classroom size of 81m², with a ceiling height of 3m and occupied by 25 students should have at least 3.7-4.4 air changes per hour. This is the measure of air volume added to or removed from a room in one hour relative to the volume of the room. Higher values of air change rates correspond to better ventilation.</p>
<p>During a pandemic, the number of air changes per hour should be higher than usual. The World Health Organisation recommends <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/media-resources/science-in-5/episode-10---ventilation-covid-19">six air changes per hour</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-use-ventilation-and-air-filtration-to-prevent-the-spread-of-coronavirus-indoors-143732">How to use ventilation and air filtration to prevent the spread of coronavirus indoors</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>Because the occupants of a building breathe out carbon dioxide, the <a href="https://www.astm.org/Standards/D6245.htm">CO₂ concentration</a> is used to evaluate air quality and ventilation.</p>
<p>Outdoor <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/state-of-the-climate/greenhouse-gas-levels.shtml">CO₂ concentration levels are at just over 400 ppm in Australia</a>. A 450 ppm concentration difference indoors (of less than a total of 850 ppm) is <a href="https://www.abcb.gov.au/Resources/Publications/Education-Training/Indoor-air-quality">regarded as best practice</a>. CO₂ levels of less than 400 ppm above outdoor concentrations is classified as “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1600-0668.2004.00268.x">high indoor air quality</a>”.</p>
<p>Our analysis of ten classrooms in five schools shows the CO₂ concentrations in Victorian schools are far over the less than 850 ppm prescribed by the National Construction Code. This indicates very poor ventilation. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-cant-afford-to-ignore-indoor-air-quality-our-lives-depend-on-it-87329">We can't afford to ignore indoor air quality – our lives depend on it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In our analysis, average classroom ventilation rates ranged between 1.8 to 9.9 L/s per person which are far below the 10-12 L/s per person requirement. Around 80% of classrooms had ventilation rates below this requirement. </p>
<p>Some classrooms we saw were fitted with air conditioning systems but were stuffy and not provided with adequate outdoor air. </p>
<p>Schools comply with the NCC specifications but most classroom use is controlled by teacher preferences which could work against code requirements and result in poor indoor conditions.</p>
<p>This could mean operation of air conditioning systems, closing and opening of windows and leaving doors closed or wide open may contribute to the fluctuations and peak levels of CO₂ concentration and slow air exchange.</p>
<h2>What about the rest of the country?</h2>
<p>Similar results as ours were found in a study in <a href="https://apo.org.au/conference/247936">New South Wales</a> where classrooms had average CO₂ concentration during autumn ranging from 442 ppm to 1,510 ppm, and 718 ppm to 2,114 ppm in winter. Maximum CO₂ concentrations exceeded 2,900 ppm during the occupied period. </p>
<p>Conditions in Victorian school classrooms were also similar with those found in <a href="https://www.isiaq.org/docs/Papers/Paper1026.pdf">New Zealand</a> primary classrooms, where CO₂ concentrations ranged from 1,032 ppm to 2,122 ppm with maximum levels exceeding 4,000 ppm during school hours in winter. </p>
<p>However, a study of naturally ventilated schools in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2014.05.013">Brisbane</a> showed median indoor CO₂ concentrations during school hours were generally lower than the guideline concentration. But average concentrations for some classrooms still ranged from 1,043 to 1,370 ppm. </p>
<p>Poor classroom air doesn’t only affect health. It has other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2012.10.007">social and economic consequences</a> such as student performance and staff productivity. Improving <a href="https://theconversation.com/educating-australia-why-our-schools-arent-improving-72092">school education is a priority in Australia</a>. This means there is a strong incentive to improve indoor conditions in schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154950/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Myla Andamon has received funding from organisations including the Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, the Victorian State Government Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), the Victorian State Government Department of Education and Training (DET) and various industry partners.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jin Woo received funding from the Victorian State Government Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Priya Rajagopalan receives funding from organisations including the Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, the Victorian State Government Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) and various industry partners.</span></em></p>A year-long analysis of Victorian primary and secondary school classrooms has found the amount of carbon dioxide often far exceeds the maximum acceptable standard.Mary Myla Andamon, Senior Lecturer, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT UniversityJin Woo, Senior Lecturer, RMIT UniversityPriya Rajagopalan, Professor, Sustainable Building Innovation Laboratory (SBi Lab), RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1543672021-02-01T18:58:53Z2021-02-01T18:58:53Z‘The stories a nation tells itself matter’: how will the COVID generation remember 2020?<p><em>This is a longer read. Enjoy</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The speed with which the COVID-19 virus infected the world and the dramatic nature of its fallout is without parallel. Individually and collectively we have struggled to understand and process it. Early on in the pandemic, journalists looked to historians to help make sense of what was happening and to read from the past the possible impacts of this moment on the future. Experts on past pandemics tried to shed light on how we might recover, and on the prospective local and global consequences of this COVID-19 catastrophe. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381623/original/file-20210201-23-z719mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381623/original/file-20210201-23-z719mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381623/original/file-20210201-23-z719mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381623/original/file-20210201-23-z719mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381623/original/file-20210201-23-z719mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381623/original/file-20210201-23-z719mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1150&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381623/original/file-20210201-23-z719mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1150&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381623/original/file-20210201-23-z719mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1150&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/generation-covid/">Griffith Review</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Historians find remnants of the past in libraries and archives, in objects, monuments and buildings, in fields and forests, in music and art and images, in memories and stories. This is where we find the <a href="https://www.paulkrameronline.com/history-in-a-time-of-crisis/">roads not taken</a>, the possibilities foreclosed, the thinking that shapes a culture, the choices made that, sometimes through the slow accretion of time and action and sometimes suddenly and dramatically, change outcomes and “make history”. </p>
<p>The sense that a generation carries a distinct identity is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1031461X.2015.1120335">forged by sharing</a> the “experience of profound and destabilising events”. Those events have their greatest impact if people experience them young, typically in their late teens and early 20s.</p>
<p>Generational consciousness is shaped by the sharing of those dramatic events, their subsequent remembering and the recognition, often by older generations, of the distinctiveness of a generational experience or mode of self-representation.</p>
<p>What might the past offer us at this moment, and how will future generations reflect on this year? How will this present become the future’s past?</p>
<h2>The COVID generation</h2>
<p>The generation currently in their late teens and early 20s — the COVID generation — already had cause to be worried about their future. </p>
<p>In 2018 and 2019, hundreds of thousands of them had filled city streets to call for action on climate change and for an end to our dependence on fossil fuels. </p>
<p>In 2020, those young people found themselves stuck at home with remote learning, their rites of passage cancelled, their plans upended, their casual labour no longer required, their collective protests in city streets ruled illegal, their sense of agency curtailed by a microscopic virus with its origins in the ecological breakdown they fear. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-festivals-no-schoolies-young-people-are-missing-out-on-vital-rites-of-passage-during-covid-145097">No festivals, no schoolies: young people are missing out on vital rites of passage during COVID</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Many joined the long unemployment queues snaking outside Centrelink offices. </p>
<p>While they are in the age bracket least likely to suffer serious health effects from the coronavirus, they are the generation most likely to struggle to find employment in the post-pandemic world, and the ones who, along with their younger siblings, will be carrying the debt burden of the government’s relief measures for the longest.</p>
<p>The fragility of their future is suddenly even more immediately apparent. Not since their great-grandparents were young has an Australian generation lived with such uncertainty, such a profound sense that the future is out of its control.</p>
<h2>Collective memory</h2>
<p>“Collective memory” is a term historians use to refer to the ways the public “remembers” an event or a period of time. It is the version that gets publicly told, endorsed and reworked through films and history books, commemorative activities, monuments and school curricula. </p>
<p>The further back in time an event occurred, the more abstracted the collective memory of it becomes.</p>
<p>Think Anzac, now one of our most carefully curated memories. In the immediate post-World War I period, understandings of what the war had meant for the nation were <a href="https://publishing.monash.edu/product/anzac-memories/">highly contested</a>. Defeat at Gallipoli, 60,000 lives lost (the highest death rate among the Allied forces), a divided and grieving home-front community and an economy in shreds were not obvious raw materials from which to build a narrative about heroic manhood and the founding of the nation. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-anzac-day-came-to-occupy-a-sacred-place-in-australians-hearts-76323">How Anzac Day came to occupy a sacred place in Australians' hearts</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Historians played a key role in creating that narrative. C.E.W. Bean <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10314618908595824">crafted it carefully</a>, selecting the stories that would best illustrate the history he wanted to tell, and then campaigning for a monument and museum that would house and celebrate that story — the Australian War Memorial. </p>
<p>Anzac provided a healing narrative that gave solace to grieving families and the nation alike. It helped make sense of unimaginable loss. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381564/original/file-20210201-21-16h1mif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The Australian War Memorial." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381564/original/file-20210201-21-16h1mif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381564/original/file-20210201-21-16h1mif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381564/original/file-20210201-21-16h1mif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381564/original/file-20210201-21-16h1mif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381564/original/file-20210201-21-16h1mif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381564/original/file-20210201-21-16h1mif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381564/original/file-20210201-21-16h1mif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Australian War Memorial housed the collective ANZAC narrative. It helped make sense of unimaginable loss.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/canberra-australia-december-12-2014-australian-239719210">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For the COVID generation, the return of overwhelming uncertainty cuts deeply in a cohort for whom anxiety and depression were already being described as a pandemic and in a context where mental health was a growing source of national disquiet. They might remember that feeling in their future — or it might not be mere memory. </p>
<p>In 50 years’ time, living with anxiety and uncertainty may be a normal part of the human experience, a consequence of the disruption and havoc of environmental degradation.</p>
<p>Which stories will the COVID generation remember from 2020 — 20, 30, 50 years from now? </p>
<h2>An X-ray of inequality</h2>
<p>They might remember their mothers. One of the fault lines of the pandemic has been gender. More jobs have been lost in <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/pandemic-has-impacted-women-most-significantly-20200604-p54ziu.html">female-dominated sectors</a> than in male-dominated ones. Gender inequality is being further entrentched. While men’s participation in childcare has increased slightly with working-from-home arrangements, women have continued to carry the major load, as well as the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-20/coronavirus-covid19-domestic-work-housework-gender-gap-women-men/12369708">bulk of the housework</a>. The juggle of working while home-schooling their children has taken its toll on women. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/low-paid-young-women-the-grim-truth-about-who-this-recession-is-hitting-hardest-141892">Low-paid, young women: the grim truth about who this recession is hitting hardest</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The COVID generation might also remember living in families where precarity and uncertainty were daily realities. The pandemic has functioned as an X-ray of inequality, revealing the cracks in our social fabric. </p>
<p>Will the image of Melbourne’s public housing towers — in which, as the Victorian premier admitted, some of the state’s most vulnerable communities lived — locked down and encircled by police, or the anxious face of a young child gazing from an upper-floor window, become part of the city’s collective memory? </p>
<p>Let them remember, too, alongside all the failures of our systems that have been exposed by the pandemic, the many examples of community strength and collective endeavour. For more than eight months, five million Victorians sacrificed personal freedoms to protect those most vulnerable to the virus. </p>
<p>Many thousands also acted with generosity and selflessness to support and care for those in need. Australians around the country made similar sacrifices. </p>
<h2>The stories we tell ourselves matter</h2>
<p>Historians know the stories a nation tells itself matter; collective memory can suppress competing versions of the past, while individual and family stories might hold conflicting memories. Our work has been crucial in shaping and dismantling, telling and retelling the narratives through which we have come to think of ourselves as a nation. </p>
<p>We have colluded in the silences of colonial dispossession, the erasure of women’s voices and the celebration of environmental-wreckage-as-progress, as much as we have, “in alliances with communities of action”, found voices that have challenged the racist and sexist hierarchies on which such histories were founded. </p>
<p>It’s important to note, however, that many of those stories have not been framed as “national”, but rather as histories of specific groups of people. Their essence has not been abstracted to a national stage and inflected with the power to carry us forward as Australians in periods of existential crisis. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/white-male-and-straight-how-30-years-of-australia-day-speeches-leave-most-australians-out-130279">White, male and straight – how 30 years of Australia Day speeches leave most Australians out</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is time to bring these marginalised group stories into the national story so we all learn from them as a nation: understand their morals and enact their lessons. </p>
<p>Such an embrace would provide the opportunity for a more honest reckoning with our past — including Indigenous histories — a more authentic reflection of our collective present and richer traditions from which to draw as we face an uncertain future.</p>
<p>The survivors from generations who lived through the Great Depression or World War II, many of them subsequently Australia’s postwar migrants, are among the COVID casualties from our aged-care facilities. They are the generation that helped create our contemporary world. </p>
<p>Daily obituaries in The Age told their stories, their experiences of mass unemployment, war, widespread rationing, poverty and few social services, and presented illuminating stories of hardship, endurance and the importance of community.</p>
<p>But beyond the COVID-19 case count, the exposure of an economic system contingent on precarity and inequality, and the incriminating tally of aged-care deaths, what memories might linger and take shape in the generations who live to look back on this watershed year?</p>
<h2>An obituary to neoliberalism</h2>
<p>It is far too early to predict where this particular historical tide will settle and how this moment of crisis will be recalled. We are still living this story, still captured by the drama of its unfolding, navigating our way along a shoreline none of us has walked before.</p>
<p>If 2020 does prove to be a rupture in our previous trajectory, that contingency will entirely depend on what happens next, be that further pandemics and climate catastrophes or a radical rewind of our carbon emissions and a restructuring of our economy. </p>
<p>Either way, the memories we take forward from this time will be a mix of stories. They will be drawn from individuals and families and gradually coalesce into a broader cultural narrative, one in turn shaped by more powerful forces seeking to draw national significance and meaning from the disaster. </p>
<p>The COVID generation will bring their own distinct memories to shape the national story.</p>
<p>The national stories we tell at this time are crucial. We need stories of adaptation and survival, of resilience and sacrifice, of rebuilding lives shattered by world events, of campaigning for justice, of hope and possibilities.</p>
<p>Too many obituaries have already been written as a result of this pandemic. But I hope for one more. I hope for an obituary to neoliberalism. When the COVID generation remember 2020 and the time that came just after, may they remember the power of community action, collective responsibility and the strength of our diverse body politic. </p>
<p>May they remember the way the passion for change that they carried onto the streets in 2018 and 2019 gradually infected us all, countering the poison of complacency and the power of the fossil-fuel industry alike. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-covid-in-ten-photos-145318">Friday essay: COVID in ten photos</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>May they recall a government that, as in the postwar period, invested heavily in employment schemes, in the welfare state, in social housing and higher education; a government willing to make the connections between the droughts, fires and floods that have ravaged our land in the past three years and the pandemic that has ruptured our world, and to act in response — belatedly but definitively — to protect the future. </p>
<p>And may they celebrate and commemorate a community whose vision, sharpened by these unprecedented times, determined that the history they made and bequeathed would be infused with the values of care, stewardship and justice.</p>
<p><em>This is an edited version of an essay published in <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/generation-covid/">Griffith Review 71: Remaking the Balance</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154367/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie Holmes receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>What might the past offer us at this moment, and how will future generations reflect on this year? How will this present become the future’s past?Katie Holmes, Professor of History, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1529792021-01-19T19:07:50Z2021-01-19T19:07:50ZCoronavirus: is it safe for kids to go back to school? And what about the new mutant strain?<p>A year ago, in late January 2020, Australia reported its first cases of COVID-19. Since then, we have seen almost <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-current-situation-and-case-numbers">29,000 confirmed cases</a> and 909 deaths. </p>
<p>As cases climbed in Australian cities in 2020, many students did their <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/covid-19/schools/covid-19-national-principles-school-education">schoolwork from home</a>. Australia, including Victoria, came out of lockdowns at the end of last year. But due to outbreaks in New South Wales and Queensland over <a href="https://theconversation.com/vic-qld-and-nsw-are-managing-covid-outbreaks-in-their-own-ways-but-all-are-world-standard-152974">Christmas and New Year</a>, that impacted on Victoria, restrictions remain in some places.</p>
<p>So what now, for the new school year? Is it safe for students to go back to school?</p>
<h2>What we learnt in 2020</h2>
<p>Australian health officials, paediatricians, and federal and state education departments worked together to understand how SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — is transmitted in Australian schools. </p>
<p>They also kept updating, as more information came to light, what schools can do to provide a safe learning environment for children and staff. </p>
<p>Up to the end of term 3 in <a href="https://www.ncirs.org.au/covid-19-in-schools">New South Wales</a>, 49 student- and 24 staff- cases were linked to schools and early learning centres. Each of these cases, and their contacts, were followed since the pandemic began. Schools had <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(20)30251-0/fulltext">low rates of transmission</a> — with 51 transmission events (38 students, 13 staff) out of 5,793 contacts traced (<1%) — in terms 1, 2, and 3 when COVID-19 safe measures were in place. </p>
<p>Key measures were:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>limiting adults in the school and early learning centre grounds</p></li>
<li><p>staying home when unwell with cold-like symptoms</p></li>
<li><p>getting tested early.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Most schools and early learning centres in NSW reopened after only a few days. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/202009/Report-summary-COVID-19-in-victorian-schools-pdf.pdf">Victoria</a>, up until the end of August 2020, 1,635 cases were associated with early learning centres and schools. These consisted of 254 staff, 599 students and 753 household members, out of a total of 19,109 cases in Victoria during their second wave. </p>
<p>Two-thirds of infections in early learning centres and schools did not progress to outbreaks (two or more cases) and more than 90% were small outbreaks (fewer than ten cases). </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/behind-victorias-decision-to-open-primary-schools-to-all-students-report-shows-covid-transmission-is-rare-147006">Behind Victoria's decision to open primary schools to all students: report shows COVID transmission is rare</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While transmission has been <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/senior-students-behind-runaway-covid-19-cluster-at-al-taqwa-college-20200707-p559wd.html">connected with a Victorian school in the media</a>, transmission events often have a more complex basis than just occurring in the classroom. Schools are often located in a multi-generational community and cases in this large school cluster were linked to high community transmission rates rather than infection in the <a href="https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/202009/Report-summary-COVID-19-in-victorian-schools-pdf.pdf">school</a>.</p>
<p>These studies confirm that when SARS-CoV-2 is detected in a student or staff member, it is very unlikely for other students or staff to be infected at school with the processes put in place in 2020 to provide a safe learning environment. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.telethonkids.org.au/projects/detect-schools/">Western Australia</a>, almost 14,000 asymptomatic staff and students were swabbed at the school in terms 2 and 3. No cases of SARS-CoV-2 were detected, consistent with the absence of community transmission in that state.</p>
<h2>But why are other countries closing schools?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/01/three-studies-highlight-low-covid-risk-person-school">Overseas</a>, studies have shown schools can implement health strategies to safely keep schools open and minimise SARS-CoV-2 transmission risks.</p>
<p>In the US, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7003e1.htm">noted</a> that: “trends among children and adolescents aged 0–17 years paralleled those among adults”. However, the organisation <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7003e1.htm">also reported</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>as of the week beginning December 6, aggregate COVID-19 incidence among the general population in counties where K–12 schools offer in-person education (401.2 per 100,000) was similar to that in counties offering only virtual/online education (418.2 per 100,000).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Norway, where testing is strong, <a href="https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.26.1.2002011">schools were open with mitigation measures</a> in place. There was minimal child-to-child (0.9%, 2 out of 234) and child-to-adult (1.7%, 1 out of 58) <a href="https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.26.1.2002011#abstract_content">transmission</a>.</p>
<p>Other countries have chosen to close schools as a last resort in national <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-lockdown-stay-at-home">lockdowns</a> in the face of extremely high rates of community transmission and daily case numbers, which meant only widespread reductions in population movements could be effective. This is not the case in Australia at the start of term 1, 2021.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/children-may-transmit-coronavirus-at-the-same-rate-as-adults-what-we-now-know-about-schools-and-covid-19-150523">Children may transmit coronavirus at the same rate as adults: what we now know about schools and COVID-19</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is common for viruses to evolve and there have now been several new variants of concern such as those identified in the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55659820">UK, South Africa and Brazil</a> which are more <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2775006">transmissible</a>. The potential of such variants entering Australia is uncertain, and so is the risk of transmission in schools. </p>
<p>Reassuringly, if community transmission of such a variant occurs in Australia, we have established experience to monitor, and hopefully halt, its spread. </p>
<h2>So, what should Australia do?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-16/coronavirus-home-school-how-australian-parents-are-coping/12152790">Remote learning</a> provides <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-28/vulnerable-students-could-fall-behind-remote-learning-covid19/12190834">considerable challenges</a> to keep students engaged, reduces the close supervision and support in the classroom, and provides an added disadvantage for <a href="http://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/combatting-covid-19-s-effect-on-children-2e1f3b2f/">children</a> with mental-health conditions, disabilities or special needs. </p>
<p>For parents, it is difficult to work effectively, provide for the family and maintain their well-being when their child is learning from home. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-workload-was-intense-what-parents-told-us-about-remote-learning-146297">'The workload was intense': what parents told us about remote learning</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Based on the above evidence, schools are safe to open. But states should adopt mitigation measures — including when to add masks, reduce attendance or close schools — according to a traffic light system from green (standard measures) to red (close schools) based on the degree of community transmission. The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute has recommended this approach for <a href="https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/202009/Report-summary-COVID-19-in-victorian-schools-pdf.pdf">Victoria</a>. Education departments around Australia can consider a similar approach.</p>
<p>This is consistent with the recommendations of Australia’s <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/covid-19/schools/covid-19-national-principles-school-education">National Cabinet</a> and <a href="https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/01/12/creating-covid-secure-schools-we-need-strategy-not-just-ad-hoc-responses/">international advice</a>. </p>
<p>It is important schools and early learning centres continue to adhere to their local <a href="https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/schools-teachers-and-principals,%20https://education.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/advice-for-families">COVID advice</a>. Parents and guardians should check their contact details are up to date so they can be contacted easily, regularly check what restrictions are in place and, when unwell, get their child tested and stay at home. </p>
<p>In 2020, students and staff rapidly learned to regularly wash their hands, adapt to cleaners in the school throughout the day, socially distance and wear masks when required. These public health interventions, vaccination, and <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.09.20209429v1.full">testing and tracing</a> will remain the mainstay for the year ahead in Australia.</p>
<p>Monitoring well-being and building resilience will also be core educational activities in the months ahead.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152979/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asha Bowen receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, and the Department of Health and Department of Education of Western Australia.
Asha Bowen is the current Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ANZPID) group of the Australasian Society of Infectious Diseases (ASID). She is co-chair of the Paediatric and Adolescent Guidelines for the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce and a member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians COVID-19 expert reference group. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Archana Koirala is a paediatric infectious diseases specialist at NCIRS. She is a member of the Australian Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ANZPID) and ASID Vaccine Special Interest Group (VACSIG). Archana receives funding from NSW Health. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona Russell receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, the Wellcome Trust, and Coffey (funded by DFAT). Previously, she has received funds from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, PATH, and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services. She is Deputy Chair of the Australasian Society of Infectious Diseases Vaccination Special Interest Group (VACSIG). She is a member of DFAT's External Advisory Group for COVID-19 vaccines for the Asia-Pacific region. She is a panel member on WHO's Global Science Dialogue on COVID-19 and schools, and member of WHO's COVID-19 Living Systematic Review group for research in children.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristine Macartney is the Director of NCIRS. NCIRS receives funding from Australian Government Department of Health, State Health Departments, the NHMRC, the World Health Organisation, Gavi and other (non-commercial) sources. She is a member of numerous national and international advisory committees on COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margie Danchin receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, Department of Health and Human Services, Victoria, Commonwealth Department of Health and WHO. She is chair of the Collaboration on Social Science in Immunisation (COSSI) and a member of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) COVID-19 working group on vaccine safety, evaluation, monitoring and confidence. </span></em></p>Based on closely following outbreaks in schools and early learning centres across Australia throughout 2020, we have enough evidence to show how students can return to school safely.Asha Bowen, Head, Skin Health, Telethon Kids InstituteArchana Koirala, Paediatrician and Infectious Diseases Specialist, University of SydneyFiona Russell, Principal research fellow, The University of MelbourneKristine Macartney, Professor, Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of SydneyMargie Danchin, Associate Professor, University of Melbourne, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1505232020-11-23T19:04:46Z2020-11-23T19:04:46ZChildren may transmit coronavirus at the same rate as adults: what we now know about schools and COVID-19<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370687/original/file-20201123-17-gukzdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/small-girl-face-mask-school-after-1746069461">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The role children, and consequently schools, play in the COVID-19 pandemic has been hard to work out, but that puzzle is now finally starting to be solved. </p>
<p>The latest research shows infections in children <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666634020300209">frequently go undetected</a>, and that children are <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(20)30387-9/fulltext">just as susceptible</a> as adults to infection. Children likely transmit the virus at a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6944e1.htm?s_cid=mm6944e1_w">similar rate to adults</a> as well.</p>
<p>While children are thankfully much less likely than adults to get seriously ill, the same isn’t true for the adults that care for them. Evidence suggests schools have been a <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-schools-now-driving-force-of-covid-19-spread-experts">driver of the second wave</a> in Europe and elsewhere. This means the safety of schools needs an urgent rethink.</p>
<h2>It’s hard to detect COVID-19 in children</h2>
<p>Infections with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in children are generally <a href="https://journals.lww.com/pidj/FullText/2020/06000/COVID_19_in_Children,_Pregnancy_and_Neonates__A.1.aspx">much more mild</a> than in adults and easy to overlook. A study from South Korea found the majority of children had symptoms mild enough to go unrecognised, and <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2770150">only 9% were diagnosed at the time of symptom onset</a>.</p>
<p>Researchers used an antibody test (which can detect if a person had the virus previously and recovered) to screen a representative sample of nearly 12,000 children from the general population in Germany. They found the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666634020300209">majority of cases in children had been missed</a>. In itself, that’s not surprising, because many cases in adults are missed, too. </p>
<p>But what made this study important, was that it showed young and older children were similarly likely to have been infected.</p>
<p>Official testing in Germany had suggested young children were much less likely to be infected than teenagers, but this wasn’t true. Younger children with infections just weren’t getting tested. The study also found nearly half of infected children were asymptomatic. This is about <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa955/5869860">twice what’s typically seen in adults</a>.</p>
<h2>But children do transmit the virus</h2>
<p>We’ve known for a while that around the <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2768952">same amount</a> of viral genetic material can be found in the nose and throat of both children and adults.</p>
<p>But that doesn’t necessarily mean children will transmit the same way adults do. Because children have a smaller lung capacity and are less likely to have symptoms, they might release less virus into the environment.</p>
<p>However, a new study conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6944e1.htm?s_cid=mm6944e1_w">children and adults were similarly likely to transmit the virus</a> to their household contacts.</p>
<p>Another study, of more than 84,000 cases and their close contacts, in India found <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6517/691">children and young adults were especially likely to transmit the virus</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/children-might-play-a-bigger-role-in-covid-transmission-than-first-thought-schools-must-prepare-144947">Children might play a bigger role in COVID transmission than first thought. Schools must prepare</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Most of the children in these studies likely had symptoms. So, it’s unclear if asymptomatic children transmit the virus in the same way. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/1/20-3849_article">outbreaks in childcare centres</a> have shown transmission by children who don’t show symptoms still occurs. During an outbreak at two childcare centres in Utah, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6937e3.htm?s_cid=mm6937e3_w">asymptomatic children transmitted the virus</a> to their family members, which resulted in the hospitalisation of one parent.</p>
<h2>What we know about outbreaks in Australian schools</h2>
<p>Schools didn’t appear to be a major driver of the epidemic in Victoria, although <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-02/coronavirus-changes-victorian-schools-and-child-care-explained/12516544">most students switched to remote learning</a> around the peak of the second wave. </p>
<p>However, schools did contribute to community transmission to some extent. This was made clear by the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-09/al-taqwa-college-coronavirus-covid19-cluster-melbourne-truganina/12437584">Al-Taqwa College cluster</a>, which was linked to outbreaks in Melbourne’s public housing towers.</p>
<p>When researchers analysed cases in Victorian schools that occurred between the start of the epidemic and the end of August 2020, they found infections in schools <a href="https://www.mcri.edu.au/news/covid-19-victorian-schools-and-childcare-mainly-driven-community-transmission-analysis-finds%C2%A0">mirrored what was happening in the community overall</a>. They also found 66% of all infections in schools were limited to a single person.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/behind-victorias-decision-to-open-primary-schools-to-all-students-report-shows-covid-transmission-is-rare-147006">Behind Victoria's decision to open primary schools to all students: report shows COVID transmission is rare</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370690/original/file-20201123-19-13hnxin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A closed-school sign on the gate." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370690/original/file-20201123-19-13hnxin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370690/original/file-20201123-19-13hnxin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370690/original/file-20201123-19-13hnxin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370690/original/file-20201123-19-13hnxin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370690/original/file-20201123-19-13hnxin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370690/original/file-20201123-19-13hnxin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370690/original/file-20201123-19-13hnxin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most students in Victoria switched to remote learning at the peak of the second wave.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/school-closed-sign-protective-mask-hanging-1678762111">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This might seem encouraging, but we have to remember this virus is characterised by superspreading events. We <a href="https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/5-67">now know that about 10% of infected people</a> are responsible for about 80% of secondary COVID-19 cases.</p>
<p>Two major studies from <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1092-0">Hong Kong</a> and <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6517/691">India</a> revealed about 70% of people didn’t transmit the virus to anyone. The problem, is the remainder can potentially infect a lot of people.</p>
<p>What happened in Victorian schools was entirely consistent with this. </p>
<p>The risk associated with schools rises with the level of community transmission. The picture internationally has made this clear.</p>
<h2>What we know about outbreaks in schools, internationally</h2>
<p>After schools reopened in Montreal, Canada, school clusters quickly outnumbered those in workplaces and health-care settings combined. President of the Quebec Association of Infectious Disease Microbiologists, <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-schools-now-driving-force-of-covid-19-spread-experts">Karl Weiss, said</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Schools were the driver to start the second wave in Quebec, although the government did not recognise it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A report by Israel’s Ministry of Health concluded <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/health-ministry-report-finds-kids-more-likely-to-catch-virus-than-adults/">school reopening played at least some role in accelerating the epidemic</a> there, and that schools may contribute to the spread of the virus unless community transmission is low. In the Czech Republic, a rapid surge in cases following the reopening of schools prompted the mayor of Prague to describe schools as “<a href="https://www.news4teachers.de/2020/09/prags-buergermeister-schulen-sind-zu-covid-tauschboersen-geworden/">COVID trading exchanges</a>”.</p>
<p>The opposite pattern has been seen when schools have closed. England just witnessed a drop in new cases, followed by a return to growth, coinciding with the <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/208413/coronavirus-prevalence-remains-high-some-evidence/">half-term school holidays</a>. This was before any lockdown measures were introduced in the country.</p>
<p>These observations are consistent with a study examining the effect of imposing and lifting different restrictions in 131 countries. Researchers found school closures were associated with a reduction in R — the measure of how fast the virus is spreading — while <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30785-4/fulltext">reopening schools was associated with an increase</a>.</p>
<p>The risk has been spelled out most clearly by the president of the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s equivalent of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last week, he <a href="https://twitter.com/AscotBlack/status/1329710952850272257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1329710952850272257%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconversation.com%2Fdrafts%2F150523%2Fedit">reported the virus</a> is being carried into schools, and also back out into the community.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1329710952850272257"}"></div></p>
<h2>What we need to do</h2>
<p>It won’t be possible to control the pandemic if we don’t fully address transmission by children. This means we need to take a proactive approach to schools.</p>
<p>At a minimum, <a href="https://schools.forhealth.org/risk-reduction-strategies-for-reopening-schools/">precautionary measures</a> should include the use of <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-children-and-masks-related-to-covid-19">face masks</a> by staff and students (including <a href="https://www.g-f-v.org/sites/default/files/Statement%20ad%20hoc%20commission%20SARS2_englisch_final-RB_sent.pdf">primary school students</a>). Schools should also improve ventilation and indoor air quality, reduce class sizes, and ensure kids and staff practise hand hygiene. </p>
<p>School closures have a role to play as well. But they must be carefully considered because of the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-21/coronavirus-what-we-know-about-long-term-effect-school-closure/12679496">harms associated with them</a>. But these harms are likely outweighed by the harms of an unmitigated epidemic.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-ww2-to-ebola-what-we-know-about-the-long-term-effects-of-school-closures-146396">From WW2 to Ebola: what we know about the long-term effects of school closures</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In regions with high levels of community transmission, temporary school closures should be considered. While a lockdown without school closures can probably still reduce transmission, it is unlikely to be maximally effective.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150523/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zoë Hyde does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The risk associated with schools is tied to the level of community transmission. The more community transmission there is, the more transmission there will be in schools.Zoë Hyde, Epidemiologist, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1448542020-11-08T19:04:56Z2020-11-08T19:04:56ZIs learning more important than well-being? Teachers told us how COVID highlighted ethical dilemmas at school<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361534/original/file-20201005-16-1l9jvwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-woman-teacher-she-sitting-looks-351401795">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As an <a href="https://educationalethics.org/">educational ethicist</a>, I research teachers’ ethical obligations. These can include their personal ethics such as protecting students from harm, respect for justice and truth, and professional norms like social conformity, collegial loyalty and personal well-being.</p>
<p>Moral tensions in schools can come about when certain categories of norms conflict with each other. For example, sometimes students’ best interests are pitted against available resources. These present difficult decisions for the teacher, the school community and its leaders. </p>
<p>As part of a <a href="https://www.justiceinschools.org/event/educational-ethics-during-global-pandemic-discussion-group-research-study-educators">global study</a> on educational ethics during the pandemic, I conducted focus groups with Australian childcare, preschool, primary and secondary school teachers to find out what ethical issues were most pressing for them.</p>
<p>Below are three ways in which the pandemic highlighted existing tensions between ethical priorities.</p>
<h2>1. Student well-being versus learning</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/national-policy-framework/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers.pdf">Australian Professional Standards for Teachers</a> emphasise student well-being is important to learning. But they note teachers’ main priority is making sure the student learns at their stage of the <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/">Australian National Curriculum</a>. </p>
<p>During COVID, this flipped and well-being took precedence. A primary school teacher told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s the first time in my teaching career where the learning became a low priority, and well-being took over … if we could keep them chugging along, that was good enough.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>An Aboriginal-identifying teacher who shared their strong cultural background with students said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… a lot of the Aboriginal students … didn’t have access to … resources. And so there was already this disconnect that became even wider by the time they had to learn from home … Some students were not able to complete the work that I was putting on the online forum because they were caring for little brothers and sisters when they were at home … or home life was extremely volatile …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A secondary school teacher said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There were certain students that we were made aware of by the well-being coordinators that we weren’t to make contact with. If there were more extenuating circumstances in the life of the child then we weren’t to … exacerbate that by sending emails home about them not completing work … </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some teachers found it particularly difficult to identify students at heightened risk and to put in place their duty of care requirements. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-workload-was-intense-what-parents-told-us-about-remote-learning-146297">'The workload was intense': what parents told us about remote learning</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A public primary school principal in a low socioeconomic area said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We had a couple of instances where we would have had more contact with family, community services and since (then) we have heard stories of what happened when the children weren’t coming to school … we would have made an instant call to DOCS [Department of Community Services], but because we weren’t having that day to day contact we didn’t know. A lot of those things were hidden, very serious issues.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>2. Government policy versus staff well-being</h2>
<p>Leading teachers and principals found the tension between their personal safety and that of their colleagues were often in conflict with a lag in institutional directives. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367891/original/file-20201106-21-10m6vv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Textbooks, a mask and sanitiser on a teacher's desk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367891/original/file-20201106-21-10m6vv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367891/original/file-20201106-21-10m6vv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367891/original/file-20201106-21-10m6vv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367891/original/file-20201106-21-10m6vv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367891/original/file-20201106-21-10m6vv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367891/original/file-20201106-21-10m6vv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367891/original/file-20201106-21-10m6vv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Education departments often put out instructions long after principals felt the safety of their staff was compromised.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/search/schools+social+distancin">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For instance, on March 25 The <a href="https://news.nswtf.org.au/blog/media-release/2020/03/media-release-normal-school-operations-must-end-put-health-and-safety-students-and-staff-first">NSW Teachers’ Federation</a> urged the education department to immediately prioritise the safety of staff and students. </p>
<p>But the department took time to mandate social distancing measures, school closures and learning from home. In the meantime principals were on alert for risk management, anticipating directives for extensive social distancing, such as cancelling school assemblies, before being instructed to do so. </p>
<p>One public school principal said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The federation is telling us this. The department is telling us that … I would make a decision and then a couple of weeks later … the department would come up with the same strict instructions … it was the well-being of the staff first for me … even to the point where we sent the kids home for the first week with no learning … the second that one child comes to school and catches COVID, then I’m not going to be able to live with myself.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-had-no-sanitiser-no-soap-and-minimal-toilet-paper-heres-how-teachers-feel-about-going-back-to-the-classroom-138600">'We had no sanitiser, no soap and minimal toilet paper': here's how teachers feel about going back to the classroom</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But it wasn’t the same in all schools. A primary school teacher in a bushfire affected area reflected on the decisions made by the principal.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m trying to be diplomatic … We were very slow to engage with kids who were starting to be kept home from school. And we were very slow for teachers to be able to work from home and we were very quick to come back to … school … We have a parent who worked at the local high school saying, ‘Oh, yeah, we’ve been working at home all week’. We haven’t even been told that’s a possibility …</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>3. Personal well-being versus professional integrity</h2>
<p>A teacher’s professional integrity is how they evaluate the alignment between the expectations of their role and their values. When a schism arises, it throws into question some core professional values. </p>
<p>One public school principal’s integrity had an extremely high bar.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ll be really honest, despite all of the warnings and all of the advice, my own well-being was my last priority. And the ethical dilemma for me was, I can’t look after myself because I’ve got so many other people to look after first, despite all the warnings, despite all the advice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Teachers reported the personal cost of changing work arrangements into remote settings, concerned about how they were to fulfil their professional integrity to provide the kind of meaningful interactions students needed. </p>
<p>A secondary Catholic school teacher said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Remote learning really threw me off balance and I struggled to find myself and how I fit into that situation … I had to learn to let go and … work out what is really important.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For the next generation of teachers, the dilemma was more about how to set boundaries in an emerging professional identity. </p>
<p>One early career public secondary teacher said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I did go out of my way to with my Year 11s, them being my most senior year … Which did bring up the ethical thing … there were times I would get a message at one o'clock and I’d be up but I’d say, I’m not answering that, I’m not looking at it. I’m looking at it in the morning. That’s too much in each other’s heads. And, yeah, the barriers were tough.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>An experienced secondary teacher in an International Baccalaureate school said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was working sending emails at midnight, and getting up three hours before my lessons to try and make sure that the platform is working … and obviously all my lessons that I plan had to be then turned into online lessons. So that takes a whole other weekend for everything … I got WhatsApp messages at all hours … </p>
</blockquote>
<p>She said students sent her emails to thank her for the commitment. She realised it was a toxic message to send, and that implied this should be the norm for teachers. While teaching is a generous profession, COVID highlighted the expectations on their generosity.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/exhausted-beyond-measure-what-teachers-are-saying-about-covid-19-and-the-disruption-to-education-143601">'Exhausted beyond measure': what teachers are saying about COVID-19 and the disruption to education</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144854/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniella J. Forster does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An educational ethicist talked to teachers about what ethical issues were most pressing during COVID. Here are the three that featured most.Daniella J. Forster, Senior Lecturer, Educational ethics and philosophies, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1479902020-10-13T08:02:06Z2020-10-13T08:02:06ZVictoria’s money for tutors is necessary, but there are 5 things it needs to do to ensure they’re successful<p>Victorian Education Minister, James Merlino, <a href="https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/thousands-tutors-bring-students-speed">announced A$250 million on Wednesday</a> for 4,100 tutors to be deployed across Victorian schools from the first term in 2021. </p>
<p>The vast majority of Victorian students spent much of terms two and three learning remotely — this is about half the school year. The government expects this money will support more than 200,000 students across the state who have been left behind during the remote learning period. </p>
<p>In announcing the package, the minister said about one in five students will need extra support. Our report (from the <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/covid-catch-up/">Grattan Institute</a>) in June found a large cohort of disadvantaged students — especially those from the poorest families, with learning difficulties, or where languages other than English are spoken at home — will have fallen much further behind than their classmates during the school closures. </p>
<p>Our analysis shows disadvantaged students in Victoria are likely to have lost somewhere between two and six months of learning over the remote schooling period. The equity gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students grows at triple the rate during remote schooling. </p>
<p>These learning losses compound an existing equity problem in schools, and increase the risk of students disengaging. </p>
<p>The Victorian government’s funding is critical. Without it, schools would not have the resources needed to help students catch up. But the government needs to take several extra steps, including ensuring the quality of tutors, so this funding has its desired effect.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/victorias-year-12-students-are-learning-remotely-but-they-wont-necessarily-fall-behind-143844">Victoria’s Year 12 students are learning remotely. But they won't necessarily fall behind</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What’s in the package?</h2>
<p>James Merlino’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-13/victoria-to-hire-tutors-to-help-students-after-home-learning/12760838">promise to parents is</a>: “If your child has fallen behind, we will bring them back up to speed”.</p>
<p>To bring these students up to speed, the package includes:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>A$209.6 million for every government school (primary, secondary and specialist) to attract and employ 3,500 tutors across the 2021 school year, to deliver small group learning to students who need it</p></li>
<li><p>tutoring for small groups from one to five students</p></li>
<li><p>$30 million towards employing 600 tutors at non-government schools</p></li>
<li><p>$8.6 million towards schools working with families to lift student outcomes and re-engage students with learning.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The package not only benefits students, but also provides employment for young people and women who have been most impacted financially by the pandemic. The <a href="https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/thousands-tutors-bring-students-speed">government estimates</a> 80% of tutor roles will be filled by women.</p>
<h2>Is it enough?</h2>
<p>Tutoring is expensive, but can provide big benefits in quick time. Tutoring programs overseas have consistently proven beneficial, with some students gaining an additional <a href="https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/teaching-learning-toolkit/small-group-tuition/">three to five months of learning</a> over just one to two terms of schooling. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/disadvantaged-students-may-have-lost-1-month-of-learning-during-covid-19-shutdown-but-the-government-can-fix-it-140540">Disadvantaged students may have lost 1 month of learning during COVID-19 shutdown. But the government can fix it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If implemented well, this package would be enough to stem much of the predicted learning losses for disadvantaged students. But the Victorian government should take five extra steps to ensure it gets its money’s worth:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>the initiative relies on teachers to correctly identify students who are struggling, and why. The government should ensure some of the money is spent on extra training for teachers who need it</p></li>
<li><p>successful tutoring depends on selecting high-quality, well-trained tutors. Schools can’t be expected to screen the quality of tutor recruits by themselves. The government should set the quality standards, and could commission a third party to ensure only the best tutors are hired </p></li>
<li><p>The government should give schools guidance on effective literacy and numeracy programs that involve small-group or one-on-one tuition. There are existing programs that, <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/">on</a> <a href="https://evidenceforlearning.org.au/assets/Thinking-Maths/E4L-Thinking-Maths-Evaluation-Report.pdf">evaluation</a>, <a href="https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Projects/Evaluation_Reports/Mathematical_Reasoning.pdf">show</a> they can have large impacts in specific areas such as maths, oral language skills or certain aspects of reading</p></li>
<li><p>the government should evaluate the impact of the catch-up tutoring to give insight on what works for a COVID response, but also to close the much larger existing equity gap for disadvantaged students long-term. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that must not be missed</p></li>
<li><p>the government should require accountability from schools on how the extra funds are spent. For example, schools should be expected to invest in tutoring where it is relevant, or to explain the nature of investments in other initiatives which the school believes are needed.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Victoria’s plan to find high-quality tutors from existing retired, casual, or student teachers is a good start. But if it proves difficult to find enough quality candidates from this pool, other options should be considered. University graduates from all disciplines and teaching assistants can have large benefits, as well as large tutoring providers. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1315824822140563457"}"></div></p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-catch-up-premium">UK’s new national tutoring scheme</a> has a lot of quality assurance built into it. For example, schools can either choose to employ a tutor directly who has been trained and screened, or use a tutor from a “quality assured” tutoring provider. Financial incentives encourage schools to choose tutoring providers that have demonstrated high evaluation standards. </p>
<h2>What about other states?</h2>
<p>Although remote schooling did not last as long in the other states and the territories, disadvantaged students would still benefit from a similar package — just a smaller one to Victoria’s.</p>
<p>Extra support should be available so students across Australia don’t slip through the cracks. Victoria’s tutoring announcement this week should become a model for all Australian states and territories.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Sonnemann is a Board Director of The Song Room, a not-for-profit organisation.
We thank the Origin Energy Foundation for their generous and timely support for our COVID catch-up report.</span></em></p>The Victorian government’s funding is critical to helping disadvantaged students catch up. But the government needs to take several extra steps to ensure their funding has its desired effect.Julie Sonnemann, Acting Program Director, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1470062020-09-28T06:21:20Z2020-09-28T06:21:20ZBehind Victoria’s decision to open primary schools to all students: report shows COVID transmission is rare<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360188/original/file-20200928-22-8dtgvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-elementary-school-kids-running-corridor-388664428">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At the weekend, Victorian Premier <a href="https://theconversation.com/curfew-lifted-and-covid-19-roadmap-is-ahead-of-schedule-as-melbourne-inches-towards-end-of-lockdown-146987">Dan Andrews announced</a> all the state’s primary school kids would return to school for Term 4. This is an update from the <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/restrictions-in-victoria-to-ease-from-midnight/news-story/95d35093d9f7230f6ab7479c3f9157ec">previously planned</a> staggered return to primary school, which would begin only with students in the early years — prep (first year) to Year 2. </p>
<p>The change was <a href="https://www.mcri.edu.au/news/covid-19-victorian-schools-and-childcare-mainly-driven-community-transmission-analysis-finds%C2%A0">informed by our analysis</a> of Victorian health and education department data on all cases and contacts linked to outbreaks at schools and early childhood education and care services (childcare and preschool). </p>
<p>We included data between January 25 (the date of the first known case in Victoria) and August 31.</p>
<p>Our analysis found children younger than 13 seem to transmit the virus less than teenagers and adults. In instances where the first case in a school was a child under 13, a subsequent outbreak (two or more cases) was uncommon. This finding played a key role in helping make the decision for primary school children to return to school.</p>
<p>Here is what else we found.</p>
<h2>1. Outbreaks in childcare and schools are driven by community transmission</h2>
<p>Infections linked to childcare, preschools and schools peaked when community transmission was highest in July, and declined in August. In addition, they were most common in the geographical areas where community transmission was also high.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1310051975191429120"}"></div></p>
<p>This suggests infections in childcare, preschools and schools are driven primarily by transmission in the broader community. Controlling community transmission is key to preventing school outbreaks.</p>
<h2>2. School infections are much lower than in the community</h2>
<p>There were 1,635 infections linked with childcare, preschools and schools out of a total of 19,109 cases in Victoria (between January 25 and August 31). </p>
<p>Of 1 million students enrolled in all Victorian schools, 337 may have acquired the virus through outbreaks at school. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-disrupted-my-kids-first-year-of-school-will-that-set-them-back-145845">Coronavirus disrupted my kid's first year of school. Will that set them back?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Of 139 staff and 373 students who may have acquired infection through outbreaks at childcare, preschools or schools, eight (four staff and four students) were admitted to hospital, and all recovered. </p>
<p>The infections in childcare, preschools and schools were very rarely linked to infections in the elderly, who are the most vulnerable to COVID-19.</p>
<h2>3. Most infections in schools and childcare centres were well contained</h2>
<p>Of all the outbreaks in Victorian childcare centres, preschools and schools, 66% involved only a single infection in a staff member or student and did not progress to an outbreak. And 91% involved fewer than ten cases.</p>
<p>Testing, tracing and isolation within 48 hours of a notification is the most important strategy to prevent an outbreak.</p>
<p>The majority of infections in childcare, preschools and schools were well contained with existing controls and rapid closure (within two days), contact tracing and cleaning. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-the-kids-alright-social-isolation-can-take-a-toll-but-play-can-help-146023">Are the kids alright? Social isolation can take a toll, but play can help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Households are the main source of infection, not schools</h2>
<p>The investigations of cases identified in schools suggest child-to-child transmission in schools is uncommon, and not the primary cause of infection in children. Household transmission has been consistently found to be the most common source of infection for children.</p>
<h2>Closing schools should be a last resort</h2>
<p>Based on our findings and a review of the international literature, we recommend prioritising childcare centres, preschools and schools to reopen and stay open to guarantee equitable learning environments — and to lessen the effects of school closures. </p>
<p>Children do transmit the virus and outbreaks can occur. But based on the international literature, this mostly happens when there are high rates of community transmission and a lack of adherence to mitigation measures (such as social distancing) at the school or childcare centre. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1310050596724989952"}"></div></p>
<p>Childcare centres, preschools and schools play a critical role not only in providing education, but also offering additional support for vulnerable students. </p>
<p>With childcare centres and schools being closed, along with the additional economic and psychological stress on families, family conflict and violence has increased. This has <a href="https://ccyp.vic.gov.au/news/new-findings-reveal-massive-impact-of-covid-for-children-and-young-people-in-victoria/">led to many children</a> and young people feeling unsafe and left behind in their education and suffering mental-health conditions.</p>
<p>Closing all schools as part of large-scale restrictions should be a last resort. This is especially the case for childcare centres, preschools and primary schools, as children in these age groups are less likely to transmit the virus, and be associated with an outbreak. </p>
<p>Now that community transmission in Victoria is so low, it’s time for all kids to go back to school.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-ww2-to-ebola-what-we-know-about-the-long-term-effects-of-school-closures-146396">From WW2 to Ebola: what we know about the long-term effects of school closures</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The authors would like to thank their advisory committee from the Department of Education and Training and the Department of Health and Human Services. They would also like to thank outbreak epidemiologists at the DHHS and medical students Alastair Weng, Angela Zhu, Anthea Tsatsaronis, Benjamin Watson, Julian Loo Yong Kee, Natalie Commins, Nicholas Wu, Renee Cocks, Timothy O'Hare, and research assistant Kanwal Saleem, and Belle Overmars.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147006/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona Russell receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the University of Melbourne; the Wellcome Trust; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the World Health Organization; and Australian Aid. Funding was received by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services to undertake the DHHS analysis.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kim Mulholland is affiliated with the WHO as a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization and the sub-committee examining the impact of Covid-19 on immunization. He is a member of the Safety Monitoring Committees for Covid-19 vaccine trials in Australia, USA and South Africa, for which no payment is accepted. He is also a staff member of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Funding was received by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services to undertake this analysis.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Snow receives funding from the Centre for Research Excellence in Tuberculosis Control on Both Sides of Our Border (TB-CRE), the University of Melbourne, and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Funding was received by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services to undertake this analysis.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margie Danchin receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, University of Melbourne and Commonwealth Department of Health. Funding was received by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services to undertake the DHHS analysis.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharon Goldfeld receives funding from NHMRC, ARC, Australian state and federal government departments of Health, Social Services and Education as well as a range of philanthropic organizations. </span></em></p>A new report shows out of 1 million students enrolled in all Victorian schools, only 337 may have acquired the virus through outbreaks at school.Fiona Russell, Principal research fellow, The University of MelbourneEdward Kim Mulholland, Professor, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteKathleen Ryan, Research Fellow, Asia-Pacific Health, Infection and Immunity Theme, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteKathryn Snow, Epidemiologist, The University of MelbourneMargie Danchin, Associate Professor, University of Melbourne, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteSharon Goldfeld, Director, Center for Community Child Health Royal Children's Hospital; Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne; Theme Director Population Health, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1458452020-09-22T20:10:09Z2020-09-22T20:10:09ZCoronavirus disrupted my kid’s first year of school. Will that set them back?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359007/original/file-20200921-22-f4yr3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/child-boy-girl-playing-outdoors-face-1635619165">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Students in the first year of school to Year 10 have been <a href="https://education.vic.gov.au/about/department/Pages/term3.aspx">learning remotely</a> in Victoria. It’s estimated first-year students (known as prep in Victoria) in areas that have been under lockdown for some time <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/veteran-principal-says-more-prep-students-may-need-to-repeat-next-year-20200830-p55qns.html">have missed around 12 weeks</a> of classroom schooling in terms two and three.</p>
<p>These first year students will also be <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/restrictions-in-victoria-to-ease-from-midnight/news-story/95d35093d9f7230f6ab7479c3f9157ec">one of the first groups to return</a> to face to face classes when restrictions start easing in Melbourne. In <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-11/coronavirus-queensland-back-to-school/12199118">other states</a> when restrictions lifted, students in the first years of school, and the most senior years, were the first to go back.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1302430483926532096"}"></div></p>
<p>This recognises the first year is important for children’s education. It provides the foundations for literacy, numeracy and socialisation, which all matter for lifelong success. </p>
<p>Given the disruption in 2020 to this important year of school all across Australia — particularly in Victoria — <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/veteran-principal-says-more-prep-students-may-need-to-repeat-next-year-20200830-p55qns.html">some school leaders have expressed concern over disadvantaged students</a>, such as those living in households where English is a second language, and suggested children repeat the year in 2021.</p>
<p>Parents may be concerned about how this year’s disruption has affected their kids. But how worried should they really be?</p>
<p>Parents should remember that while remote school may look different to “normal” school, children are still being taught; they are still learning and many are still actively engaged in the curriculum. Teachers are still teaching, developing lessons and engaging with children in their learning. </p>
<p>Here are four other things to keep in mind.</p>
<h2>1. Parent engagement matters as much as learning at school</h2>
<p>Research shows <a href="https://www.education.sa.gov.au/sites/default/files/towards-best-practice-parent-involvement.pdf?acsf_files_redirect">parents’ engagement is one of the most important influences</a> on children learning. Children’s educational outcomes improve not only when parents are actively engaged in their learning, but also when parents are genuinely interested. </p>
<p>So, simply asking your children how their day went and what they learnt can enhance their outcomes. </p>
<p>Remote schooling has highlighted inequities in the way children access education. This is particularly so for children who may not be confident English speakers, or families who have limited access to technology at home. But those aren’t the only tools necessary for success.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-help-your-kids-with-homework-without-doing-it-for-them-126192">How to help your kids with homework (without doing it for them)</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Home resources also include <a href="https://www.educationreview.com.au/2020/04/education-expert-john-hattie-weighs-in-on-the-impacts-of-distance-learning/">parents who are interested</a>, supportive and committed to their child’s learning. And being confident in English isn’t mandatory either. Education <a href="https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/languages/manage/Pages/speakyourlanguage.aspx">departments encourage</a> multilingual parents to speak their own language to the child as much as possible, as this actually enhances their English skills and helps with memory and attention. </p>
<h2>2. Kids don’t start school as a blank slate</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/covid-19-practical-tips-for-early-years-teaching-and-learning">importance of the early years of a child’s education</a> (from birth to eight) is well documented. When children enter the first year of formal schooling, they do not begin as a blank slate. </p>
<p>Across Australia, around 90% of children starting school <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/australias-children/contents/education/early-childhood-education">have already attended preschool</a>. They start school with a <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/starting-strong-v_9789264276253-en#page1">range of skills and abilities</a> — including having learnt independence, how to develop relationships and how to acquire new knowledge — that significantly contribute to their later school success. </p>
<h2>3. It’s not what kids know that matters</h2>
<p>More important than what children know is how they engage as learners. Children’s social and emotional competence is a significant measure of later school success. Having a <a href="https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/school-readiness/article/why-childrens-dispositions-should-matter-all-teachers#:%7E:text=The%20link%20between%20dispositions%20and,%E2%80%9D%20(2002%2C%20246)">positive attitude</a> towards learning, a positive sense of self, strong emotional well-being and strong social competence are key indicators for effective learning. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359215/original/file-20200922-22-1mbktr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Legs and feet of child paying hopscotch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359215/original/file-20200922-22-1mbktr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359215/original/file-20200922-22-1mbktr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359215/original/file-20200922-22-1mbktr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359215/original/file-20200922-22-1mbktr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359215/original/file-20200922-22-1mbktr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359215/original/file-20200922-22-1mbktr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359215/original/file-20200922-22-1mbktr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children start school already having a range of skills and abilities they need for success.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kid-playing-hopscotch-on-playground-outdoors-332743895">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rather than focusing on what academic learning kids may have missed, parents and teachers can support children to develop these <a href="https://www.ecrh.edu.au/docs/default-source/resources/ipsp/learning-to-learn-positive-dispositions-as-a-learning-curriculum.pdf?sfvrsn=6">positive dispositions</a>. </p>
<h2>4. Other factors affect learning</h2>
<p>Nobody knows exactly how children’s learning and success will have been affected by the disruption to schools over 2020. There are, however, studies investigating how children’s learning was affected when school was disrupted due to natural disasters.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdev.13200">2019 study</a> looked at the effects of school disruptions due to bushfires in Australia. It found a reduction in expected gains in Year 3 to 5 NAPLAN scores in schools affected by the bushfires. But a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1753-6405.12625#:%7E:text=Objective%3A%20To%20examine%20the%20impact,transition%20period%20of%20school%20leaving.&text=Results%3A%20Despite%20concerns%20about%20negative,a%20consequence%20of%20the%20earthquakes">2016 study</a> into long-term effects on academic success for children who went through the Christchurch earthquake found increased school disengagement had no bearing on poorer academic performance. </p>
<p>These findings need to be considered in context. In both situations, children experienced trauma associated with being displaced, the loss of family and friends, and homes and schools destroyed. Trauma is <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=learning_processes">linked to poorer educational outcomes</a>. </p>
<p>We know many children are currently experiencing levels of trauma due to what they are seeing and hearing in the media, whose parents may have lost jobs, or whose family has been impacted by the illness. For these children, trauma may have affected their learning during the remote learning period. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-every-teacher-needs-to-know-about-childhood-trauma-132965">Why every teacher needs to know about childhood trauma</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, given the findings from these previous events, when children do return to the classroom, they will be returning to an environment in which they feel safe and connected. It is important for teachers to recognise these children may have experienced trauma and to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10826-017-0774-9">create a supportive classroom environment</a>.</p>
<p>When contemplating whether your child should repeat their foundation year, it is important to not focus on what they haven’t achieved. </p>
<p>Instead, focus on their dispositions for learning, their self-confidence, and their emotional well-being, as these will be better predictors of their ability to catch up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145845/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>In her role as Senior Lecturer, Early Childhood Education, Elizabeth Rouse has worked on a number of research projects funded to the University by the Victorian Department of Education, the Frak Leydon Trust and the International Baccalaureate.
Elizabeth Rouse is currently a member of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE), The European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA); the Early Childhood Association (ECA), Australian Community Children's Servies (ACCS) and Community Child Care Victoria (CCC).</span></em></p>Remote school may look different to ‘normal’ school, but children are still being taught; they are still learning and many are still actively engaged in the curriculum.Elizabeth Rouse, Senior Lecturer, Early Childhood Education, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1462972020-09-21T20:00:23Z2020-09-21T20:00:23Z‘The workload was intense’: what parents told us about remote learning<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358927/original/file-20200921-16-14hlbx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/homeschool-asian-little-young-girl-student-1739402348">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Parents and carers were responsible for overseeing their children’s learning during the first wave of COVID restrictions in Australia. Many parents in Melbourne and some in regional Victoria will <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-06/victoria-melbourne-school-childcare-return-covid-restrictions/12634738">still be doing</a> this for some of term four.</p>
<p>We surveyed and interviewed <a href="http://blogs.utas.edu.au/isc/files/2020/05/Experiences-of-parents-and-caregivers-supporting-children-while-learning-from-home.-Report-9.pdf">parents and carers of primary school-aged children</a> in Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and the ACT to explore their experiences of helping their children with remote schooling.</p>
<p>We asked parents to rate their levels of agreement with statements such as “I felt the school provided enough guidance for me to support my child while learning from home” and “I feel that my child has continued to progress in their education during the home-learning period”. </p>
<p>Out of the 131 responses to the survey during July and August, 22% of parents found their experience good, 34% found it poor and 44% reported mixed feelings. While 72% of parents and carers agreed schools provided enough guidance to support children while learning at home, this was not the case for 28% of people. And 68% indicated they found themselves teaching beyond provided materials. </p>
<p>This suggested a number of parents were taking a proactive role in their children’s learning and exploring areas of interest beyond the scope of the work allocated, even where they found it adequate. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/students-in-melbourne-will-go-back-to-remote-schooling-heres-what-we-learnt-last-time-and-how-to-make-it-better-142550">Students in Melbourne will go back to remote schooling. Here's what we learnt last time and how to make it better</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Individual interviews with 20 parents revealed concerns about the amount and quality of learning materials provided. Many also said their children’s needs were not supported in the learning materials and there was little opportunity for children to connect with peers. </p>
<p>Other <a href="https://theconversation.com/exhausted-beyond-measure-what-teachers-are-saying-about-covid-19-and-the-disruption-to-education-143601">researchers have found</a> the experience of remote learning was also immensely stressful for teachers, most of whom had a very short time to convert to online teaching – but our survey only looked at the effects on parents and carers.</p>
<h2>So much information, so little feedback</h2>
<p>Parents and carers spoke about the pressure they felt to ensure children completed work and to return it on time. For some the workload was too much, for others too little.</p>
<p>One parent of a Year 5 child said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the workload was so intense[…] he was working from 9 am until 3 or 4pm, pretty solidly throughout the day.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While another parent of a Year 3 child said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I had one child that had literally finished all his work by midday. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>At least five of the parents interviewed had multiple children and found managing the differing workloads challenging. A parent of children in Year 5 and Year 1 said often one child would finish daily tasks in an hour, while another child could not complete set tasks for the day. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/only-one-fifth-of-school-students-with-disability-had-enough-support-during-the-remote-learning-period-143195">Only one fifth of school students with disability had enough support during the remote learning period</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>At least half of the parents interviewed felt there were unrealistic expectations placed on them and lacked direction on how to help their children:</p>
<p>One parent of a Year 5 child told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When they ask detailed questions, I would say let me just Google that for you — and that’s not very helpful[…] that’s where not being a teacher really stood out.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Once the work was finished, parents were generally disappointed teachers provided no, or limited, feedback. One parent described the teacher’s use of emojis and like buttons as “Facebooking my daughter’s learning”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358948/original/file-20200921-24-yxavb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Father helping his daughter with schoolwork" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358948/original/file-20200921-24-yxavb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358948/original/file-20200921-24-yxavb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358948/original/file-20200921-24-yxavb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358948/original/file-20200921-24-yxavb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358948/original/file-20200921-24-yxavb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358948/original/file-20200921-24-yxavb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358948/original/file-20200921-24-yxavb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some parents said they got to know their child’s learning better.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-father-helping-her-daughter-school-76131607">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some parents interpreted this type of feedback as devaluing the efforts of parents and children. One parent of a Year 1 child said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If they do want us to communicate in a platform, then at least give us the respect of replying with decent replies rather than a thumbs up. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another parent expressed frustration with the lack of feedback:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m getting no emails off the teacher with feedback, or anything like that — no saying “just letting you know that Josh did great this week”, or “just letting you know Josh has not handed in anything”, so I have no idea if he’s doing well or doing bad.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One parent felt her Year 3 daughter “wasn’t that interested in some of the activities - she was not being challenged — it was boring”. So the mother “created resources that suited my child better, based on what the teacher provided”. </p>
<h2>There were some positives</h2>
<p>In the survey, 80% of parents and carers agreed: “The experience of home learning has helped me to understand how my child learns”. </p>
<p>One parent said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I got to know them a bit better as people, which is nice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And another said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Being able to teach my kids allowed me to be closer to them and engage in their learning world. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Other parents saw their children develop in confidence and become more autonomous with their learning. </p>
<p>A parent of Year 1 child told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>She can now take photos on my phone, Bluetooth it to the laptop, find it on the laptop and put it on Seesaw. I don’t think I could do that until I was 30 so the IT skills are great.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But that same parent was also generally concerned about the quantity of screen time required in remote learning, especially for a six year old.</p>
<h2>Here’s what would help</h2>
<p>We asked what would help to support parents and carers, and their children, learning from home. The overwhelming response was to increase opportunities for children to connect with their teachers and peers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/exhausted-beyond-measure-what-teachers-are-saying-about-covid-19-and-the-disruption-to-education-143601">'Exhausted beyond measure': what teachers are saying about COVID-19 and the disruption to education</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Parents appreciated regular class catch ups online, when these were held. One parent told us their child’s school held a “class meet” every morning, and individual Zoom sessions were scheduled for children who needed additional support. </p>
<p>One parent highlighted: “communication has to be paramount and it’s got to be regular”. </p>
<p>In general, parents held the view connecting was more important than a focus on curriculum. This can be summed up by this parent’s comment:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Instead of trying to do maths tests in a Zoom session, or quizzes or finding out whether they’re reaching their reading levels, just have a conversation with them about something that’s important to them. That’s just as important I think, forget all those other activities to show you’re doing lots of work.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p><em>If you are a parent or carer of a child in primary school who has or is currently experiencing learning from home, and would like to tell us about your experiences, you can still participate in <a href="https://redcap.utas.edu.au/surveys/?s=PET7JAJHAD">our survey</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146297/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We surveyed and interviewed parents of primary school-aged children in Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and the ACT to explore their experiences of helping their children with remote schooling.Tracey Muir, Associate Professor in Mathematics Education, University of TasmaniaCarol Murphy, University of TasmaniaDavid Hicks, Lecturer in Cultural Awareness Aboriginal Studies, University of TasmaniaKim Beasy, Lecturer in Curriculum and Pedagogy (Equity and Diversity), University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1463962020-09-20T19:42:59Z2020-09-20T19:42:59ZFrom WW2 to Ebola: what we know about the long-term effects of school closures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358777/original/file-20200918-18-73t5ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/closed-sign-outside-public-school-grand-1688108254">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Closing schools has been one response around the world to try to stop the spread of COVID-19. In Australia, states mandated an end to face-to-face learning for some time during the so-called first wave of the pandemic, and schools across Victoria are still closed to most students.</p>
<p>Some criticised this strategy, as evidence showed children may not spread the virus as much as adults; others were concerned parents were unable to work from home while also supervising their kids’ schooling. These points are valid, but public debate must also consider the potential long-term costs of school closures.</p>
<p>One approach to figure out what to expect is to look at the experiences of different countries after they closed schools due to previous pandemics, war or industrial action. The problem with this approach is, of course, that these places are vastly different to Australia, so all potential repercussions must be considered carefully.</p>
<p>The Ebola epidemic occurred in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone — countries vastly different to Australia in terms of culture, politics and economics. But that crisis resulted in a policy response that is now very familiar to Australians: school closures. And we can still learn some things, albeit with caveats.</p>
<h2>More disadvantaged kids may drop out</h2>
<p>Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/pdf/impact-ebola-children.pdf">closed all schools</a> throughout 2014 and 2015. In these nations, internet use is not as common as it is in Australia, so school closures actually meant most children were fully held out of education (and often food programs, which they get simply by attending schools). </p>
<p>A <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/RBA%20Policy%20Note%20Vol%202%20No%201%202015_Gender.pdf">2015 report by the United Nations Development Programme</a> found school closures had a disproportionately strong effect on girls. Gender gaps for school attendance widened once schools were reopened, while dropout rates increased. Importantly, the report found evidence of more teenage pregnancies and early marriages, which prevent girls from ever going back to school.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-what-closing-schools-and-childcare-centres-would-mean-for-parents-and-casual-staff-133768">COVID-19: what closing schools and childcare centres would mean for parents and casual staff</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While child marriage is almost unheard of in Australia, drop out rates could be a potential repercussion of the Australian school closures. Children from relatively disadvantaged households, where parents are less able to work from home and help with remote learning, may find returning to school very difficult. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358769/original/file-20200918-14-jcbshj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=34%2C0%2C3861%2C1999&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Boys in a school in Sierra Leone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358769/original/file-20200918-14-jcbshj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=34%2C0%2C3861%2C1999&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358769/original/file-20200918-14-jcbshj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358769/original/file-20200918-14-jcbshj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358769/original/file-20200918-14-jcbshj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358769/original/file-20200918-14-jcbshj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358769/original/file-20200918-14-jcbshj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358769/original/file-20200918-14-jcbshj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sierra Leone closed all its schools during the height of the Ebola outbreak. (Mabendo, Sierra Leone, May 31, 2013)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mabendo-sierra-leone-africa-may-31-466804268">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Evidence <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/00346543066003227">from the US suggests</a> summer holidays contribute to a loss in academic achievement equivalent to one month of education for poorer kids.This effect is likely to contribute to increasing drop-out rates among more vulnerable children in Australia throughout the 2020s.</p>
<p>In Victoria, a <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/remote-learning-widens-gap-as-disadvantaged-students-skip-school-20200911-p55utz.html">report found</a> more than 10% of Victorian students from disadvantaged schools were absent during the state’s first period of remote learning – compared to 4% in advantaged schools. And <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/thousands-of-nsw-students-never-returned-to-school-after-lockdown-20200901-p55rai.html">an organisation working with disadvantaged children in Sydney</a> recently reported more than 3,000 public school students in NSW have not returned to their classrooms since the remote learning period ended in May.</p>
<h2>Kids may have less access to food</h2>
<p>Another potential similarity is related to food security. Australia doesn’t have the same type of food programs we see in some of the poorest developing countries. But poorer Australian children <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/food-insecurity-australia-what-it-who-experiences-it-and-how-can-child">can suffer from food insecurity</a>, which is associated with long-term health impacts (including, ironically, obesity) and lower performance in school. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.foodbank.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Rumbling-Tummies-Full-Report-2018.pdf">many as one in five children</a> in Australia start the school day without eating breakfast. Evidence from the US and EU shows school lunch is associated with <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2468-2667%2820%2930084-0">improvements in academic performance</a>, as schools can provide access to more regular and healthier diets.</p>
<p>Many schools <a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-provide-food-for-many-hungry-children-this-needs-to-continue-when-classes-go-online-134384">across Australia have breakfast clubs</a>, or have emergency food and lunches for children who might otherwise go hungry. These programs are not consistent across Australia though, with some funded by schools, and others through food agencies or state governments.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-provide-food-for-many-hungry-children-this-needs-to-continue-when-classes-go-online-134384">Schools provide food for many hungry children. This needs to continue when classes go online</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>It may affect future earnings</h2>
<p>One of the goals of education — of course not the only one — is to prepare children for work. So, what’s the effect of school closures on future earnings? </p>
<p>Two papers published in the Journal of Labor Economics can shed light on the answer to this question. The first studies the long-term effects (40 years) of school closures by looking at <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/703134?mobileUi=0&">teacher strikes in Argentina</a> occurring in the early 1980s. The second compared long-term labour market outcomes of <a href="https://uh.edu/%7Eadkugler/Ichino%26Winter-Ebmer.pdf">children affected</a> by the second world war. Austrian and German people who were ten years old during the war received less education than comparable adults from non-war countries.</p>
<p>The Argentinian study, published in 2019, showed missing around 90 days of class reduces earnings by 2-3%. The European study, published in 2004, found Austrian children missed around 20% of classes during the war and their earnings dropped by around 3%. German children lost around 25% of classes and had earnings dropped by around 5% (albeit the German data does not allow for very precise estimates).</p>
<p>Schools in Australia have not been truly closed. They’ve remained virtually open through Zoom and other platforms. But not all children have equal access to computers, independent study areas and parents who can explain Pythagoras’ theorem. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-are-moving-online-but-not-all-children-start-out-digitally-equal-134650">Schools are moving online, but not all children start out digitally equal</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Virtual classrooms are no substitute for physical learning environments where trained teachers can closely monitor children’s progress. So while the class of 2020 will not necessarily be 3-5% poorer than the class of 2019, a wage gap between the two cohorts wouldn’t be surprising. Future studies will tell.</p>
<p>Future studies may find increments in earnings and education inequality resulting from COVID school closures. Future work may also find long-term health consequences, related to not just inequality, but also nutrition and mental health. The Lancet has <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(20)30109-7/fulltext">published two recent studies</a> that <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(20)30116-9/fulltext">document the mental health effects</a> of closures, which the authors say can have serious long-term repercussions.</p>
<p>We must consider all this evidence when we discuss our approach to policy in the future, and when making decisions as to whether to close schools again, if another “wave” hits.</p>
<p><em>The author would like to thank Trong Anh Trinh for his research assistance.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146396/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alberto Posso does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One approach to figure out what to expect is to look at the experiences of different countries after they closed schools due to previous pandemics, war or industrial action.Alberto Posso, Professor of Economics, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1329652020-09-11T05:06:29Z2020-09-11T05:06:29ZWhy every teacher needs to know about childhood trauma<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353085/original/file-20200817-18-1ywkvp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tired-school-boy-hand-on-face-1109984927">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mental health issues <a href="https://www.unicef.org.au/our-work/unicef-in-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-19/living-in-limbo">among children are on the rise</a> due to the impacts of the COVID pandemic, including lockdowns. </p>
<p>Recent <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/calls-for-help-surge-as-teens-mental-health-suffers-in-lockdown-20200910-p55u7m.html">reports show</a> there has been a 28% spike in calls to the phone counselling service Kids Helpline between March and July 2020 compared with the same period last year in Victoria, which is under stage 3 and 4 restrictions. </p>
<p>This prompted the state government to fast-track its plan to provide every state secondary school with funding to recruit its own mental-health support practitioner by the end of next year. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews <a href="https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/supporting-students-through-pandemic">announced in August</a> more than 1,500 school staff would have additional mental-health training in partnership with Headspace to help identify at-risk students as remote learning continues.</p>
<p>Such moves are important. But in this world of uncertainty, as well as the way the pandemic may be increasing <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-governments-can-do-about-the-increase-in-family-violence-due-to-coronavirus-135674">instances of family violence</a> and other types of abuse, all school staff would benefit from having an adequate understanding of the impact of trauma and adversity on children. </p>
<p>Teachers and school leaders would also benefit from knowledge about trauma and adversity when responding to children’s challenging behaviours. In education, such understanding and techniques are known as “trauma-informed pedagogy”.</p>
<h2>What is childhood trauma?</h2>
<p>Trauma is the response to exposure to a stressful or traumatic event, or a series of such events or experiences.</p>
<p>Most children have nurturing home environments, but a <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/prevalence-child-abuse-and-neglect">concerning number</a> experience trauma through abuse or neglect in Australia. It’s <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0145213415001684?via%3Dihub">estimated around</a> 8.9% of children experience physical abuse, 8.6% sexual abuse, 8.7% emotional abuse and 2.4% neglect. The rates could be higher as such experiences are difficult to measure.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-governments-can-do-about-the-increase-in-family-violence-due-to-coronavirus-135674">What governments can do about the increase in family violence due to coronavirus</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Children may also experience trauma or adversity by observing family violence, parent separation, having a parent incarcerated or with a mental illness, or due to grief from the loss of a loved one. Trauma can occur because of conflict or war, or due to a natural disaster, such as the recent bushfires.</p>
<p>COVID-19 has led to higher amounts of traumatic experiences and adversity in households. Around one-third of Australian families are going through <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/allprimarymainfeatures/86FF043DD0C1A1B8CA25856B0081D6F7?opendocument">increased financial hardship</a> and, <a href="https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/sb/sb28">for many women</a>, the pandemic has coincided with the beginning of family violence, or an increase in it. </p>
<p>Trauma <a href="https://www.cpmanual.vic.gov.au/our-approach/best-interests-case-practice-model/child-development-and-trauma">often has negative effects</a> on children’s development and behaviour. It can increase the risk of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0145213417301084">depression</a> and suicide attempts, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0920996414003685">psychotic disorders</a> such as schizophrenia, and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0145213417301084">alcohol and drug</a> use. </p>
<p>It’s important to note, not all children are negatively impacted by trauma — <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272735811001012">some even experience</a> posttraumatic growth in which they learn more about themselves and their strengths.</p>
<p>A strong <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/npp2015252">body of evidence</a> shows trauma can affect brains structures linked to learning, and control of emotions and behaviour. These effects can <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12310-016-9175-2">make it difficult</a> for children to learn, make friends and develop positive relationships with teachers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-childhood-trauma-changes-our-hormones-and-thus-our-mental-health-into-adulthood-84689">How childhood trauma changes our hormones, and thus our mental health, into adulthood</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Trauma and adversity can also <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12310-016-9175-2">disrupt children’s impulse control</a> in the classroom and on the playground.</p>
<h2>What trauma-informed practice looks like</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/making-institutions-child-safe">Royal Commission into child sexual abuse</a> recommended schools be “trauma-informed”. Being trauma-informed does not mean teachers and schools must be trained to treat trauma. Rather they must understand the impact it can have on children’s lives.</p>
<p>An Australian Institute of Family Studies discussion paper on trauma-informed practice notes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>To provide trauma-informed services, all staff of an organisation, from the receptionist to the direct care worker and the board of directors, must understand how violence impacts on the lives of the people being served so that every interaction is consistent with the recovery process and reduces the possibility of re-traumatisation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, for schools to be trauma-informed, school staff need to know about the prevalence and consequences of childhood trauma. Increasing the confidence of school staff about how to work with children impacted by trauma and adversity is also important. </p>
<p>Examples of trauma-informed practice include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>providing <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/29782838?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">teachers with information</a> about how best to teach and support children to regulate their emotions and build positive relationships. This includes getting children to <a href="https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/health/mentalhealth/Pages/socialemotion.aspx">identify their emotions</a> and check in on themselves and others around them to get acquainted with how they and their peers react to situations </p></li>
<li><p>assessing and revising school policies and practices that may re-traumatise or trigger anxiety or aggression in students (such as student isolation practices)</p></li>
<li><p>providing staff with <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01933922.2019.1634779">self-care strategies</a>, such as meditation, to help them respond to their experiences working with children impacted by adversity or trauma </p></li>
<li><p>encouraging staff to recognise <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-018-0051-7">students’ strengths</a> and help students develop their own learning goals.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Trauma-informed practice can help teachers too</h2>
<p>Teachers and school leaders already have high demands on their time, and adding another burden to their work is untenable. But trauma-informed practice is not necessarily an add-on. Rather, it is a different way of working and communicating to improve students’ relationships with school staff, and their school engagement and learning.</p>
<p>Our research with Victorian teachers <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40653-018-0228-6?shared-article-renderer">found they want more support and training</a> to be able to <a href="https://aps.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ap.12452">understand and support</a> children with trauma.</p>
<p>Some US research suggests <a href="https://hearts.ucsf.edu/outcomes">trauma-informed training</a> and processes in schools can improve staff knowledge and confidence in responding to children impacted by trauma and adversity.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trauma-informed-classrooms-can-better-support-kids-in-care-122112">Trauma-informed classrooms can better support kids in care</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Evaluations of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0091732X18821123">trauma-informed practice</a> in schools show these programs are having a positive impact. But rigorous research is lacking and more is required. We do know though, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12310-019-09326-0">teachers responding sensitively</a> to the impact of trauma helps children better engage in school and gives them a sense of belonging. It can also reduce disruptive behaviours and school suspensions. </p>
<p>By developing knowledge about the impact of trauma on children, teachers are likely to develop stronger relationships, and a greater sense of confidence, with these children, and lower classroom disruption. This <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2014-01452-001">could lead</a> to increased job satisfaction and reduced risk of burnout.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Karen Martin’s expertise in this field has resulted from research grants received from Healthway, Australian Red Cross Society, The University of Western Australia, Holyoake, Ruah Community Services, St Vincent’s Hospital, the State Government, Australia's National Research Organisation for Womens Safety, St Vincent's Health Australia and Sacred Heart Mission. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Berger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A concerning number of children in Australia have experienced trauma. Being more sensitive to what this means can help both the child and the teacher.Emily Berger, Lecturer, Monash UniversityKaren Martin, Asst Professor Population Health, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1450102020-08-25T04:23:09Z2020-08-25T04:23:09ZNSW hits pause on school choirs, but we can’t stop the music forever<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354489/original/file-20200825-20-1vf0jgc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-school-children-singing-choir-together-272254136">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The NSW health department recently <a href="https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/covid-19/Pages/cho-advice-education.aspx">instructed schools</a> to stop certain activities to minimise the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Among these — which includes school formals and graduation ceremonies — is a ban to all “school-related group singing or chanting activities and use of wind instruments in groups”.</p>
<p>These <a href="https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/coronavirus-warning-over-musical-instruments-c-1220818">guidelines came after new evidence emerged</a> that such activities could potentially contribute to the spread of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19. The velocity with which airborne particles of the virus can be expelled from the mouth while singing is much greater than when speaking. This means the usual social distancing rules schools are adopting may not prevent the virus being passed between students when they sing.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1290905380017430529"}"></div></p>
<p>These measures are of course necessary, at least temporarily, to protect the community against further transmission of COVID-19. But the thought a ban on group singing in schools might be part of our new normal is frightening.</p>
<p>There is nothing quite like the sound of a group of children singing together. I can still remember my first experience of singing in a choir when I was in third grade, and the hair-raising thrill of being part of a large group of children singing in four-part harmony at the Sydney Opera House.</p>
<p>But this is about more than just fun for our children. The social and <a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199660773.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199660773-e-017">psychological benefits of singing</a> are well established. It is important we find innovative solutions to make it safe for singing to become a part of classroom activities again as soon as possible. </p>
<h2>Singing is integral to humans</h2>
<p>Singing has been part of human communication for thousands of years. Singing, or something much like it, may even <a href="https://www.vpr.org/post/timeline-which-came-first-language-or-music#stream/0">pre-date human speech</a>. </p>
<p>Speech is composed of both the linguistic content — the words — and what is known as prosody — the song-like element in which we vary the pitch and rhythm of our speech to communicate emotion. Some <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-musical-self/201209/which-came-first-music-or-language">theorists argue</a> this song-like element may have been an important way for our ancestors to communicate prior to the development of speech and might have been the pre-cursor to song.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TRcIEMgppK8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">There’s nothing quite like the sound of a group of children singing. (Colour Music children’s choir from the Ukraine)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Music may also play an important role in parent-child bonding, which is important to the survival of human children who are born relatively dependent compared to other species. Even before birth, singing is a way parents bond with their child. Newborn babies <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030025557">can recognise</a> both their mother’s voice and music they heard in utero.</p>
<p>And singing still serves important functions. Group singing provides a sense of social connection and unity. One <a href="https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/abs/10.1027/1864-9335/a000282?journalCode=zsp">study found</a> group singing in primary-school aged children increases cooperativeness more than participation in group art or games.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-song-in-your-heart-shouldnt-lead-to-an-infection-in-your-lungs-reasons-to-get-with-online-choirs-137705">proliferation of virtual choirs</a> on social media during lockdowns across the world are testament to the way group singing connects us. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-song-in-your-heart-shouldnt-lead-to-an-infection-in-your-lungs-reasons-to-get-with-online-choirs-137705">A song in your heart shouldn't lead to an infection in your lungs: reasons to get with online choirs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Singing in schools</h2>
<p>Singing doesn’t just make us feel closer to each other. It also has <a href="https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/56455">therapeutic and cognitive benefits</a>
For example, singing can have <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0305735611430081">positive effects on mood</a>, such as reducing a child’s arousal levels and calming them down. </p>
<p>The opportunity to master songs and perform them can be a wonderful boost to confidence in children too. </p>
<p>Singing is also an inherent part of the way we learn. Children all over the world learn the alphabet and other important information in the form of song, and have <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-dictionary-of-nursery-rhymes-9780198600886?cc=us&lang=en&#:%7E:text=The%20Oxford%20Dictionary%20of%20Nursery%20Rhymes%20is%20now%20more%20than,by%20parents%20and%20children%20alike">done so for centuries</a>, with early songs for remembering the alphabet dating from at least as early as 1671.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354504/original/file-20200825-20-1idjzy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young boy wearing headphones and whistling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354504/original/file-20200825-20-1idjzy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354504/original/file-20200825-20-1idjzy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354504/original/file-20200825-20-1idjzy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354504/original/file-20200825-20-1idjzy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354504/original/file-20200825-20-1idjzy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354504/original/file-20200825-20-1idjzy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354504/original/file-20200825-20-1idjzy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Singing has positive effects on mood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/picture-stylish-cool-afro-american-schoolboy-1354900256">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We transmit cultural information in this way too. Some <a href="https://japingkaaboriginalart.com/articles/connection-dreamtime-songlines/">Aboriginal tribes use song</a> to provide children with an understanding of their Dreamtime beliefs.</p>
<p>In some schools, particularly infant and primary schools, singing is part of the daily routine. It is used first thing in the morning so children start their day with a sense of unity and positivity and can cope better with the transition from home to the classroom. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/learning-music-early-can-make-your-child-a-better-reader-106066">Learning music early can make your child a better reader</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nfhs.org/media/4029952/preliminary-testing-report-7-13-20.pdf">recent research</a> around singing and COVID-19 suggests transmission options such as singing with masks on, or singing outdoors with greater spacing between students, might be viable solutions. </p>
<p>Our teachers are nothing if not versatile, as recent events have demonstrated. In current circumstances, we will need to be creative to ensure our children can experience the important benefits of group music making in school situations while adhering to health guidelines.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145010/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandra Garrido does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Singing is integral to humans. And it has important social and psychological benefits for children.Sandra Garrido, NHMRC-ARC Dementia Research Development Fellow, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.