COVID-19 and Education

[Bri MT]

yeah the local Woolies is hiring but idk how long until the pool opens again like i feel like a new job just for 1 - 2 moths work isnt necessary but if its up to 7 months then i would need a job
and tbh i love swim teaching and the idea of working as at Woolies sounds awfully boring, but hey money is money I'll probably hand in my resume tomorrow

I would be very surprised if this is all over in 1-2 months

[Ionic Doc]

I would be very surprised if this is all over in 1-2 months

Apparently we're still in the early stages of this global crisis, so i would be very surprised if it's over in a couple of months.   

Also apparently all schools are set to shut on Tuesday a day before my English sac ...yay?

[whys]

Also apparently all schools are set to shut on Tuesday a day before my English sac

Yep... yay for studying for the bio SAC on Wednesday! We need to wait for the meeting to occur and the govt to release a statement on what is going to happen. Apparently VIC and NSW will close down schools + non-essentials (e.g. restaurants) if the federal govt doesn't agree with them anyways, but they are bringing it up in the hopes that the whole of Australia will go into similar lockdown. This is imperative. We have reached 1k cases, and this is a virus. Its spread will not stop. We have to slow it down while we can so the health system is not over-burdened, especially with the shortage of face masks and coronavirus testing kits. We do not want to turn into Italy.

Govt will also be releasing a 66 billion stimulus package, equivalent to 9% of our GDP.

[PhoenixxFire]

^NSW have said they'll be shutting down non essential services over the next two days, however they're not including schools in that just yet. I suspect this means the ACT will be shutting down too given our chief minister just said that it wouldn't make sense to arbitrarily change things at the border.

[angrybiscuit]

Schools closing down (for what I believe would be a substantial length of time) would be detrimental to schools like mine where live streams and live classes are ruled out as an option. That means we basically have to learn based off of slides and notes and learn pretty much independently. Yes we can ask questions via email but it can't compete to face-to-face interactions with the teacher. I'm lucky I'm doing subjects that won't be too affected by a closure but what about those who are doing folio subjects and VET?

I know that a school closure is required given how quickly this crisis is growing, but it won't be ideal to Year 12 students and schools with inadequate resources like mine. 

[sarascully]

arghh my school is literally the embodiment of the 'i'm not like most girls' phenomenon as majority of independent/private schools have already closed whereas my school has stated that they won't shut down unless they're issued a directive from the government !!! luckily my global 3/4 sac was postponed until next term... but i still have 3 other sacs on this week ( all this uncertainty is stressing me out !

[Snow Leopard]

Schools closing down (for what I believe would be a substantial length of time) would be detrimental to schools like mine where live streams and live classes are ruled out as an option. That means we basically have to learn based off of slides and notes and learn pretty much independently. Yes we can ask questions via email but it can't compete to face-to-face interactions with the teacher. I'm lucky I'm doing subjects that won't be too affected by a closure but what about those who are doing folio subjects and VET?

I know that a school closure is required given how quickly this crisis is growing, but it won't be ideal to Year 12 students and schools with inadequate resources like mine. 

That's the exact same situation at my school!
For this reason, I believe that since ALL schools in Vic are gonna close on Tuesday, that SEAS should still only be granted to people who actually meet the original criteria.

Yes, everyone will be impacted by schools closing including those that go to selective schools/ good schools etc. But the disadvantaged kids/schools are going to be hit the hardest since resources such as video lessons just won't be available to them, meaning that they're the one's that are really gonna need SEAS. For instance, our chem teachers have fought for a month free trial of a tutoring company that offer video explanations. But if schools are shut for longer than a month, we're most likely gonna have to rely solely on ppts and self-teaching ourselves. Unlike those from decent schools that can probably afford to pay for some form of online tutoring or additional help.

[Ionic Doc]

arghh my school is literally the embodiment of the 'i'm not like most girls' phenomenon as majority of independent/private schools have already closed whereas my school has stated that they won't shut down unless they're issued a directive from the government !!! luckily my global 3/4 sac was postponed until next term... but i still have 3 other sacs on this week ( all this uncertainty is stressing me out !

don't take my word for it, but you only have school tomorrow, and then no school on Tuesday.
As Daniel Andrews has mentioned on his twitter page: https://twitter.com/DanielAndrewsMP/status/1241578357537386496/photo/1

If you click on the image of the media release, it displays his plans to control the virus in Victoria.

Also, Andrews states that he plans on bringing school holidays forward to Tuesday. From my understanding, that means, that no schools will be teaching anything to their students after Tuesday, even over online sessions...? I only say this because he specifically mentioned school holidays.

[J_Rho]

don't take my word for it, but you only have school tomorrow, and then no school on Tuesday.
As Daniel Andrews has mentioned on his twitter page: https://twitter.com/DanielAndrewsMP/status/1241578357537386496/photo/1

If you click on the image of the media release, it displays his plans to control the virus in Victoria.

Also, Andrews states that he plans on bringing school holidays forward to Tuesday. From my understanding, that means, that no schools will be teaching anything to their students after Tuesday, even over online sessions...? I only say this because he specifically mentioned school holidays.

Yeah from my understanding bringing the school holidays forward eliminates the pressure on teachers to be teaching online by Tuesday... I was supposed to have a legal sac and  a bio sac on Tuesday  (the bio one is the one ive been waiting to do since week 2 but my schools fked me around a bit)  BIG RIP

[Ionic Doc]

Yeah from my understanding bringing the school holidays forward eliminates the pressure on teachers to be teaching online by Tuesday... I was supposed to have a legal sac and  a bio sac on Tuesday  (the bio one is the one ive been waiting to do since week 2 but my schools fked me around a bit)  BIG RIP

rip. maybe if your daring enough u could try and schedule it for tomorrow?

honestly, though, I have a feeling sac's will be disregarded at some point later on in the year

[Stormbreaker-X]

Guys I am very unfamiliar with online learning and also very bad with time management so idk how I am gonna cope 

[caffinatedloz]

The uncertainty is crazy frustrating. Our school told us last week that today was going to be a day off for teachers to do some "online learning" training, so I guess that means that I'm done for the term... I highly doubt we'll be back on the school premise doing classes in three weeks, even though that's what our teachers are saying...

Guys I am very unfamiliar with online learning and also very bad with time management so idk how I am gonna cope 

I know what you mean! Time management and accountability can be difficult, but you might find that you enjoy a self-directed (ish) style of learning. Will you have some form of contact with your teachers?

[PhoenixxFire]

Guys I am very unfamiliar with online learning and also very bad with time management so idk how I am gonna cope 

Just made this so hopefully some other people may have suggestions to help you!

The uncertainty is crazy frustrating. Our school told us last week that today was going to be a day off for teachers to do some "online learning" training, so I guess that means that I'm done for the term... I highly doubt we'll be back on the school premise doing classes in three weeks, even though that's what our teachers are saying...

We had a lot of uncertainty for a week or two whilst uni decided what to do (and changed their minds three hundred times). Would hate to have to deal with that over the holidays as well. I would just get all homework etc done as soon as you can so that you can just forget about school for a bit and not need to deal with the differences you'll get if its face to face/online until you actually have to go back.

[MoonChild1234]

i think its very likely school won't reopen at the start of term 2, and although my school does have good procedures for online learning, i'm just so confused on how we are going to be doing sacs and stuff. surely they won't make us do them at home?

[PhoenixxFire]

i think its very likely school won't reopen at the start of term 2, and although my school does have good procedures for online learning, i'm just so confused on how we are going to be doing sacs and stuff. surely they won't make us do them at home?

A fair few sac type assessments are done at home during uni so it is possible. The VCAA rules around sac assessment could be adaptable to online sacs.

Spoiler

1.1 School-assessed Coursework
Teachers must develop courses that include appropriate learning activities to enable students to demonstrate achievement of outcomes. Undue assistance should not be provided to students while undertaking assessment tasks.

Students should be clearly informed of the timelines and the conditions under which assessment tasks are to be conducted, including whether any resources are permitted.

Work completed outside class
Most work for the assessment of unit outcomes and School-assessed Coursework will be completed in class; however, this does not preclude normal teacher expectations for students to complete research and learning activities that contribute to gaining key knowledge and skills outside of class time.

Additional work and study undertaken outside of class time will be required as part of the student’s regular learning program. The setting and marking of work with a formative focus provides students with the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills, and for teachers to provide diagnostic feedback. A task for the assessment of unit outcomes may require preliminary preparation and activities associated with the task (for example, gathering necessary research data). The amount of work to be completed as
homework is decided by the study teacher, taking into account the nature, scope and purpose of the task. Students should be advised just before beginning the task that some information or data might be collected outside the classroom.

For School-assessed Coursework undertaken outside of class time, teachers must monitor and record each student’s progress through to completion. This requires regular sightings of the work by the teacher and the keeping of records in the Authentication Record for School-based Assessment form.

The ways I can see this working would be having online tests and essentially making them open book, or for tasks that are not in a test format like posters and similar, requiring regular drafts/updates be sent as work is done.

It's obviously a massive change, however sacs are only used for ranking within cohorts so as long as everything is the same for your cohort (typically your school) and you're able to rank students on that basis, it shouldn't affect anything too much.