As more than half a million Melbourne students return to classrooms, some must wait a little longer after a coronavirus case forced their school closure.
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Nazareth College, a Catholic senior school in Noble Park in the city's southeast, was meant to reopen to year seven and VCE students on Monday.
But a positive case from a student, a year 12 pupil who sat last Wednesday's General Achievement Test (GAT), scuppered plans.
Nazareth College principal Sam Cosentino said the boy was not sitting among the main group during the assessment.
"The affected student took their GAT separately for educational reasons as they kept away from the main testing site," he told AAP.
"The student had no, or extremely limited, contact with any other student."
The school was contacted about the positive case at 7.30pm on Sunday, quickly alerting parents to keep kids home for Monday and allaying their concerns.
Department of Health and Human Services officials visited the site on Monday, with impacted areas undergoing precautionary cleaning.
Mr Cosentino said the school is likely to reopen on Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.
"As someone said to me today, they said you're lucky because (DHHS) have had so many cases and so many school closures," he said.
"This is now reaping the benefits, to have a system in place where you can tick all the boxes."
Education Minister James Merlino said school outbreaks would continue to be a pandemic feature until community transmission dropped to a "very, very minuscule level".
"Until a vaccine, there will be occasions where - whether it's a school or another setting - you will have cases," he told reporters on Monday.
Despite the hiccup, the deputy premier said the transition back to face-to-face learning for 584,000 primary, secondary and specialist school students had gone smoothly.
"It's been a terrific day," Mr Merlino said.
"Excited kids, excited teachers and staff to get the kids back at school and, I think, a massive sigh of relief for parents as well.
"It was a different morning for me at home - the noise and activity that you've almost forgotten ... 'where's my jumper, did you pack the lunch, where's your bus pass, come on we've got to go'.
"That all happened this morning at hundreds and hundreds of households across Melbourne."
Primary school, year seven, VCE and special school students returned to Melbourne classrooms on Monday after almost 10 weeks of remote learning.
Year 10 students enrolled in VCE or VCAL programs are also able to attend on-site for those classes.
Students in years eight to 10 are set to return in another two weeks under the final step of Melbourne schools' staged resumption.
Australian Associated Press