As students and staff are preparing for a return to face-to-face learning in NSW public schools next month, the NSW Government is ensuring that all schools are safe, clean and secure.
\nMinister for Education Sarah Mitchell said the Department of Education is carrying out a systematic review of all learning spaces, including libraries and halls, to ensure all schools continue to operate in the safest ways possible.
\n\u201cWe are working with our schools to develop their specific return to school plans and implement the relevant on site restrictions; while this occurs we are also making sure each room is suitable for students return,\u201d Ms Mitchell said.
\nThe review will focus on ventilation in classrooms and also provide support to schools to adapt lessons to make full use of school facilities including outdoor learning areas.
\n\u201cMost NSW public schools have openable windows. The review will ensure that all windows operate efficiently allowing natural ventilation, and that ceiling fans and air conditioning systems\u00a0 are operating effectively and serviced regularly,\u201d Ms Mitchell said.
\nSchools with air conditioning systems are also being checked to ensure they are fully operational, and the frequency of filter servicing and cleaning will be increased.
\n\u201cThis is a mammoth task, as we have 2,200 schools in the public system with more than 50,000 learning spaces.\u201d
\n\u201cThe health of students and staff has always been our priority and parents should feel confident their child\u2019s school is well equipped to keep them as safe as possible,\u201d Ms Mitchell said.
\n\u201cIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic we have made significant increases in the cleaning of schools and distributed large quantities of additional hygiene and safety supplies, including face masks, hand sanitiser and surface wipes.
\nAdvice and supplies will continue to be provided to principals to support ventilation, personal hygiene, school activities, mask wearing and cleaning to ensure they can operate their school in a COVID safe way.
\nThe review is informed by the expertise of NSW Health and latest research including the NCIRS report: COVID-19 Delta variant in schools and early childhood education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As students and staff are preparing for a return to face-to-face learning in NSW public schools next month, the NSW Government is ensuring that all schools are safe, clean and secure. Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell said the Department of Education is carrying out a systematic review of all learning spaces, including libraries and halls, … Continue reading “Classrooms preparing for students return”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}