Schools in St George and Sutherland Shire are telling parents they will need to see evidence of a student's negative COVID-19 test before they return to school after an illness, in line with new guidelines.
The NSW Department of Education announced the updated COVID Safe guidelines for all NSW schools on Monday and said the additional measures for term 3 were necessary "to ensure school communities remain safe".
The new guidelines came into effect on Wednesday and follow a spate of COVID-19 infections and clusters at schools in recent weeks.
The NSW Government said the updated health advice would ensure NSW public schools "could continue to operate full-time with face-to face-teaching and learning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic".
"Schools remain safe, however, school communities must remain vigilant," the advice said.
"From Wednesday, August 19, all public schools in NSW will be required to adopt the changes.
"Anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 is prohibited from returning to school until a negative test result has been reported."
Cronulla High School principal Tony Ibrahim wrote to parents this week to update them about the new guidelines.
He said all students and staff absent or sent home due to flu-like symptoms would need to be tested for COVID-19 and "must not return to school or work "until they return a negative COVID-19 result and are symptoms free"
"Schools must sight the negative COVID-19 test result prior to allowing students and staff to return to school," he said.
The school has also postponed all singing groups and band activities for the remainder of term 3, in line with the guidelines.
The measures include keeping students within their relevant class or year group to limit mixing; not travelling outside their local community or zone; new restrictions on interschool sport and zone carnivals, which must be held in the local area and limited to 100 people per venue; a ban on spectators, including parents, on school grounds and sporting events held during school hours; banning choirs, chanting and wind instruments in group settings; and a ban on school formals, dances, graduation or other social events.
Dance activities and drama group work can continue under a COVID-19 Safety Plan.
There have been a number of NSW school closures in recent weeks.
So far, only one Sutherland Shire school has been affected. Laguna Street Public School at Caringbah was closed for almost two weeks after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19 back in June.
The large cluster at Tangara School for Girls at Cherrybrook has grown to 25 while there are six confirmed cases at Our Lady of Mercy College at Parramatta.
One of the state's top schools, Sydney Girls High School, was non-operational for on-site learning on Monday due to a confirmed case of COVID-19, causing the cancellation of a planned trial HSC exam.
Details: To view the department's guide to NSW school students for term 3 click here.
