{"id":15085,"date":"2022-02-24T10:34:17","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T10:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=15085"},"modified":"2022-02-24T10:34:17","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T10:34:17","slug":"school-life-returns-to-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2022\/02\/24\/school-life-returns-to-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"School life returns to normal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>COVID Smart settings in NSW schools have been revised, giving students the first taste of normal school life since the pandemic began two years ago.<br>&nbsp;<br>Core COVID Smart measures will remain in place, including enhanced cleaning and maximising natural and mechanical ventilation in line with health advice.<br>&nbsp;<br>From Monday 28 February:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Cohorting requirements&nbsp;and activity restrictions will be relaxed &#8211; enabling students to engage and interact more freely across classes and year groups.<\/li><li>Schools will be able to welcome more visitors onto school grounds, including parents, and will resume activities such as assemblies and school camps.<\/li><li>Mask requirements will be lifted for high school students and staff.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>From Monday, 7 March:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Mask requirements will be lifted for primary school and early education staff.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<br>Staff in Schools for Specific Purposes will continue to be required to wear masks based on health advice.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>Premier Dominic Perrottet said the relaxation of some measures while keeping others in place was a sensible approach that gives students, staff and parents more freedoms to enjoy school life while keeping the school community safe.<br>&nbsp;<br>\u201cIt is time to afford our students and parents more normality. Everyone wants to get back to the school activities and events we all love,\u201d Mr Perrottet said.<br>&nbsp;<br>\u201cThe return to school and the start of term has been a success, COVID transmission has reduced throughout the community, and while there will still be cases and bumps in schools it is time for our students to enjoy normal school life.\u201d<br>&nbsp;<br>Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell said this was the first time since the pandemic started two years ago that students have enjoyed this level of normality.<br>&nbsp;<br>\u201cWe know transmission in schools is extremely low, and not a single school has closed since school returned despite the levels of community transmission,\u201d Ms Mitchell said.<br>&nbsp;<br>\u201cRelaxing cohorting and restrictions on visitors will let more parents engage with their child\u2019s school and allow students to participate in cross-year group activities, which is welcome news for both students and parents everywhere.<br>&nbsp;<br>\u201cThe return to school, and now the return to school life, is successful because of the tremendous efforts and teamwork from all parents, staff and students. I thank all of our school communities for their support.\u201d<br>&nbsp;<br>COVID Smart settings will continue to be reviewed and updated, as necessary on health advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COVID Smart settings in NSW schools have been revised, giving students the first taste of normal school life since the pandemic began two years ago.&nbsp;Core COVID Smart measures will remain in place, including enhanced cleaning and maximising natural and mechanical ventilation in line with health advice.&nbsp;From Monday 28 February: Cohorting requirements&nbsp;and activity restrictions will be &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2022\/02\/24\/school-life-returns-to-normal\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;School life returns to normal&#8221;<\/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-15085","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\/15085","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=15085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15086,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15085\/revisions\/15086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}