Kyabram students welcomed back to school after 10 weeks away

Kyabram P-12 College principal Paul Tozer said it was great to see students and staff back together and getting right back into the learning groove.

“It’s fantastic to have everyone back. We think staff did a really great job with the remote learning, but the most ideal situation is to be face-to-face learning with the teacher,” he said.

“We were delivering a lot of classes over Webex, where we could see students, but just being in the same classroom adds that other dimension.”

St Augustine’s College principal Brayden Stone said while the past 10 weeks had been the toughest he had worked through in his 18-year career, it was also a great opportunity for educators to develop and evolve their practices.

“I think from this we have a lot to learn,” he said.

“While there has been some negative impact on the community, I see it as an opportunity for the education sphere. In the face of any pandemic or any crisis we have, it would be remiss of us not to look at what we can take from it and reflect on it.

“Today was a real reprieve for a lot of kids coming back because they felt they needed it and others adapted really well.

“It’s certainly been a mixed experience. For some kids it’s been a real positive, and for some they have lacked the motivation and did find remote learning difficult.”

“I don’t think that remote learning will impact the kids adversely because at the end of the day every kid in the state is in the same boat … it’s just up to the individual in how they respond to it.”

Kyabram P-12 College captain Kadeyn Cox said working from home was a considerable challenge for himself, as well as for a number of his peers.

“Personally, I’d say the biggest issue that I ran into, as well as many others I have talked to, was the motivation aspect … it was certainly a learning curve,” he said.

“For any year 12 or year 11 student, these are the years that are going to make or break us, and it threw us for a loop.

“But I feel with all of the arrangements that were made by the school and government, we’ll push through.”

Mr Stone said special recognition must be given to the unsung heroes of the COVID-19 period: the students’ families.

“Our families need a good report card themselves because they did an amazing job … it was enormous to juggle work responsibilities and multiple kids in the household as well as everything that came with that isolation period — that was really tough,” he said.

“For me personally, I’m really indebted to our families for how they responded, and sincerely thank them for all the work they did in that time.”