Teachers across Ballarat spent Monday preparing their students for the possibility of beginning term two in virtual classrooms.
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Following the premier's announcement that school holidays would be brought forward to begin on Tuesday, primary and secondary schools fine tuned their online systems and prepared work for students next term.
Most primary schools sent home packs of work in addition to online learning for their youngest students, and many reached out to parents who might not have devices or internet access at home to help them sort access to ensure their children do not miss out.
Schools have been working on their online systems for the past fortnight with the possibility of schools closing and moving online to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Forest Street Primary principal Jill Burt said teachers and students already used Google Classroom across the school and would continue to do so if school does not resume as planned on April 15.
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"Teachers are able to post work from home and students can post it back for feedback. It's a really valuable tool for us and our teachers have set up tasks already."
Families who do not have devices that allow their children to log on to Google Classroom have been loaned school chromebook computers so their children do not miss out.
Secondary schools urged their students to take home all of their textbooks and computers to allow for teachers to set home-based learning next term.
The closure of schools prompted many teachers to volunteer their skills on Facebook to help explain concepts to students that parents might struggle with.
Federation TAFE bought forward the Easter holiday break in line with the government's decision to do this for all Victorian schools, while Federation University students had their course paused for the rest of the week to allow the university to prepare for online delivery of most higher education programs from Monday.
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