Ballarat's government primary and secondary schools and most Catholic schools resumed classes on Monday with independent schools following later in the week, while 700,000 students from metropolitan Melbourne enjoy an extra week of school holidays ahead of a return to remote learning.
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Ballarat secondary colleges from all sectors have students who commute from metropolitan Melbourne to school in Ballarat and extra precautions will be taken to reduce the possibility of any coronavirus cases.
At Ballarat Grammar, any student who has visited or stayed in Melbourne during the school holidays will have daily temperature checks and health screening each morning until 14 days after their last visit to Melbourne.
Boarding students who visited or stayed in Melbourne will be placed in single rooms for the 14 day period following their return to the boarding house, in addition to daily temperature checks and health screening.
On Monday the school ran buses to border towns including Echuca and Swan Hill so parents of NSW boarding students would not have to travel in to Victoria, avoiding the need for them to quarantine for 14 days on their return to NSW.
Boarders in years seven, eight, 11 and 12 will take up residence again in the school's boarding houses, with greater social distancing, while those in years nine and 10 will sleep at accommodation at Sovereign Hill.
At St Patrick's College, fewer than 25 boys who travel daily from Melton and Eynesbury to attend school will have their temperature taken on arrival.
All of the students who board at the college have returned.
"A lot of the boys from the remote areas in the NT didn't go home over the holidays so there were no real quarantine issues for us to deal with there," a school spokesman said.
Loreto College, where girls resume classes on Wednesday, will introduce some compulsory temperature checks and face shields and masks have been supplied, but their use is optional.
The strict health and safety procedures put in place for the return of face to face learning in term two remain, with physical distancing and safety procedures including erection of perspex screens, classroom cleaning kits for every classroom between each class, deep clean of classrooms each day, random temperature checks, signage and segregation lines throughout the school, distance spread of all staff desks and santiser throughout the school.
Ballarat Clarendon College said students have designated and limited access to Cafe College, the library areas and study spaces with staff monitoring and supporting students in their movement around the campus, locker areas, corridors and classrooms to mitigate all potential risk.
A Damascus spokesperson said their return to school "looks very similar to what we put in place for term two" with all students and staff following the 5 S's of health and safety - to stay home if they're sick, to social distance at school, stay left and stay moving, sanitise and sneeze responsibly, and to study, stay connected, sleep and nurture their spirit.
At Ballarat's primary schools it was back to class in the same way that pupils and families had mastered in the last three weeks of term two.
Staggered start and finish times, staggered recess and lunch breaks, entry through certain gates, and hand hygiene were all reinforced at the start of the day to set the tone for the term.
Phoenix P-12 Community College principal Karen Snibson said students had all settled back in to school on Monday "very positively and we couldn't be more pleased".
"They understand that things are a little different and we have to do things differently," she said.
The school is working with several families who have chosen to keep their children home because of a family member with compromised health, or where they have flu like symptoms, but few have elected to keep their children home because of the COVID-19 risk.
She said there were students at Phoenix who travelled from Melbourne, because under Department of Education regulations if a child moves house they are not compelled to relocate school.
"There would be a number of children across Ballarat in that situation. We are probably at the lower end (in terms of numbers) and other schools toward the other side of Ballarat might have more.
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"Vigilance in our area will help keep us safe and we will continue to do that."
Ballarat High School principal Gary Palmer said attendance remained strong and, like other schools, Ballarat High was following the Department of Education operational guidelines to keep staff and student safe.
"Some areas of the school are not running - interschool sport, camps, our World Challenge trip to Africa, snow trip for year 12s, debating program ... so the school is running now with a strong focus on classroom teaching and learning and we will look at some internal wellbeing activities for our kids especially this term."
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