Prep students back to school next week, but parents warned to stay away
Queensland parents won’t be allowed on to school grounds to deliver young children to their classrooms from next week.
The state will begin a staged return to normal school operations from Monday, with the coronavirus crisis easing.
The first to return will be students in Prep, and Years one, 11 and 12, along with kids at kindy.
All other grades will return a fortnight later, on May 25, as long as the initial test run goes smoothly.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the staged return should be safe, as long as there are robust protocols to prevent the virus from spreading again.
āThe parents wonāt be able to go into the school gates,ā she told the Seven Network on Tuesday.
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ā(Schools) will be putting in place very clearly where parents can drop off the kids. They will leave the car, go in the front gate. For the junior years, we need to make sure theyāre as close as possible to the classrooms.ā
School staff will have to maintain the 1.5-metre social-distancing rule. But thatās not true for students when they are inside classrooms because itās been deemed impractical.
For now, thereās no plan to reopen boarding schools, after Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said sheād not yet been able to envisage safe protocols to limit risks from things like communal eating and showering areas.
The Queensland Teachersā Union says staff face a frantic time to prepare classrooms, work on lesson plans, deliver remote learning, and supervise kids who are still in school ā all at the same time.
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Other challenges include the absence of teachers who are either vulnerable themselves, or who care for people who are.
āThatās several thousand workers that wonāt be available,ā Bates told ABC radio on Tuesday.
āThese are the issues weāre going to have to work out over the next four days.ā
The Premier has already said it will be at least June before Queenslandās borders, restaurants and cafes reopen, given active hotspots in NSW.
But talks will begin this week with the hospitality sector about when a return to more normal trading might occur.
āJuneās a good ambitious targetā¦I canāt say whether itās early June or late June,ā the Premier said on Monday.
Queensland has recorded three more coronavirus cases to take the stateās tally to 1038.
The new cases relate to people who had recently returned from London and Los Angeles while another had been on an overseas cruise.
Of the 1038 confirmed cases, just 52 are active with 46 located in southeast Queensland.
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