Bacchus Marsh Grammar students have returned to home learning after the Department of Health requested the school close to avoid the risk of COVID being reintroduced to the school community.
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With the focus of the current outbreak around Caroline Springs and Melton, where many of their students live, the school leadership agreed to the department's request to return to remote learning from the school's Maddingly campus.
Bacchus Marsh Grammar principal Andrew Neal broke the news to parents in a letter sent to parents and posted online at 8pm Tuesday
"As a result of emerging risks today, we are requesting the immediate proactive closure of Bacchus Marsh Grammar - Maddingley Campus. This is to manage the increasing risk of a student inadvertently attending while infectious, given the risk of undetected cases in and around Caroline Springs in particular," the chief health officer wrote in a statement that Mr Neal passed on to parents.
The school was at the centre of the July outbreak after a teacher contracted COVID while at the MCG then took part in a staff training day before being diagnosed with the virus. It then spread to at least six other staff, four students and five close household members
On Tuesday night Mr Neal apologised for the sudden and late change.
"As always in this crisis we have agreed to follow health advice, even when that advice is required to make sudden changes due to the situation that confronts us," he said.
"I can understand some families being angry about the situation that we find ourselves in and the continued disruption to their lives. That frustration is understandable, however, I would ask you understand that there is a large number of people attempting to do the best for our community."
It is unknown how long the school will remain closed but Mr Neal said essential worker student learning would continue on-campus until at least the end of the week.
On August 5, as the state headed in to lockdown number six, Mr Neal confirmed there were some members of the school community who had been either at sites which had been declared as tier one sites, or who had contact with individuals who had since been told to isolate.
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"This is to be expected given the size of the school, its geographical location and the number of exposure sites," he wrote to the school community.
Ten of the 20 COVID cases reported on Tuesday were linked to Caroline Springs and the Caroline Springs Square shopping centre and there are dozens of tier one and two exposure sites listed across Caroline Springs, Woodlea and Melton.
Victoria recorded a 20 new locally-acquired COVID cases on Wednesday, 15 of which have been linked to current outbreaks and five are still under investigation. Fourteen had been in quarantine throughout their infectious periods
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