Thousands of public school students have returned to classrooms across St George and Sutherland Shire today, less than a week after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the resumption of full-time face-to-face teaching.
"Today is a special day for all students and parents, and school communities across the state as students return to school," Ms Berejiklian said at a press briefing at 11am.
"It is also pleasing to know that we have been able to do that by ensuring every measure of safety in and around our school communities.
"Can I thank also parents for listening to our advice in relation to not only schools being open and safe but also in relation to how students get to school. We have noticed very positively that sufficient numbers of students have either been walking or getting dropped off or catching a dedicated school service, and our public transport system to date doesn't seem to have buckled under the pressure."
Ms Berejiklian said early indications showed absenteeism levels today were "not that much higher than pre-COVID". She attributed this to parents heeding the call to keep their children at home if they were unwell, and not a revolt by parents.
Ms Berejiklian also doubled down on her government's earlier comments that children who did not attend school without a reason would be marked as absent.
"I appreciate a small percentage of parents make those choices but all choices come with consequences. Their children will be marked as absent. We are not changing our policy," she said
NSW Education had devised a four-phase strategy for the staged return to schools but this was thrown out last week just two weeks after public school students began attending school one day a week.
The news caught many off guard, with many teachers taking to social media, angry that they had learned the information from news reports the night before it was formally announced.
Some parents were also upset that the promised phased return to full-time learning had been scrapped.
NSW Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell denied that the NSW Teachers Federation and teachers learned about the back-to-school announcement from the media.
Ms Mitchell said last week all NSW public school students would be expected back at school and warned that "unexplained absences" would be followed up.
Ms Berejiklian said the government had used the past two months to "prepare our schools for a COVID-safe environment" through added hygiene and cleaning measures.
She said schools would need to keep up increased cleaning, access to hygiene supplies and compliance with hygiene practices.
But while she said "the health advice is very clear; a return to full-time face-to-face teaching is safe", she warned school closures caused by community outbreaks of COVID-19 would be the norm.
"It will be common for schools to be shut down temporarily. It will be common for a particular school to take extra measures if there's a community breakout in that community with cases. And we just have to accept that," she said.
Ms Mitchell said there would be no assemblies and excursions "for the foreseeable future" and no school access for non-essential visitors.
