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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-03-24 Daily Xml
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Unley High School

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:26): My question is to the Premier. If the government's current advice is that it's safe to keep schools open, why has the state government effectively closed Unley High School?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (14:26): I thank the member for his question. This is indeed a very important question today. Unley High School has progressed its preparations for online learning, particularly in relation to the circumstances in which they find themselves: with 110 students in self-isolation as a result of a positive test and eight staff members in self-isolation.

The challenges confronting our entire school system are significant. They inform the work that we have done to enable learning at home to be supported, alongside learning at school. At the moment, across most of our schools, we are in a situation where if parents choose to, as they have been empowered to since Sunday, keep their children at home, in that circumstance they are responsible for their education and the school is not. That's why we are providing significant resources into the education department to put online platforms in place to support parents in supporting their children's learning. Those resources will also be available for the contingency that statewide closures need to take place at some point.

The issue that Unley High School has, and other schools have, where there are students in isolation, is that the school has a responsibility to support the learning of those students in isolation, alongside those in the classroom. This is an extraordinary challenge, where you have students in the same class both at home doing their learning and in the class at the same time. So Unley High School is in the fortunate position of being more advanced than many schools in being able to provide strong platforms. Because they have this further circumstance, they are in a better position than some schools might have been to be able to move forward to what the education department has been asking, I think, since two Fridays ago—whenever we announced the protocols for the pandemic. Members will recall that. I think it was in the order of two to 2½ weeks ago, but I stand to be corrected if I am mistaken.

At that time, we asked that all schools work towards being able to provide two weeks' of work for all students that they could take home at any time and preferably be able to take home every day. Unley High School has been doing the work that we asked of them. They are ready to go. Today, they informed parents that they will be moving to that tomorrow. One of the key things that Unley High has also prepared for parents, and further schools in this situation will need to do the same thing should that arise, is that parents who are not in the situation to give that supervision to their students at home have been asked to let Unley High know today, if possible, that their child will be at school tomorrow. Supervision will take place for those, whether they are the children of emergency services workers or vulnerable children, or other people in that necessary worker category at Unley High.

If they are unable to provide that supervision, then Unley High will be able to do so. The thing is that we will be moving the methodology for teaching at Unley High to that learning-at-home model, even for those students who are still in Unley High. This allows the school and the teachers in the school to deliver one stream of teaching at the school rather than have teachers required to support students in the classroom at the same time as they are required to support those students who aren't in the classroom. I think that one of the key things in relation to this that can't go unnoticed is that the work being done by the staff at Unley High has been extraordinary. I particularly want to pay tribute and give thanks to them and the principal at Unley High who has done such strong work in leading his school through an even more difficult time than most other schools in the state.

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