It seems parents, students and teachers alike are in agreement that online remote-learning is the best way to keep everyone safe.
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But the latest lockdown seems to have again hit students the hardest.
Those students sitting for their HSC were especially doing it tough. The Mercury understands a number of Illawarra high schools have canned the trial HSC.
Bulli High School though plans on holding a special assessment task in place of the trial HSC.
Though some parents took to social media to express their "fears and concerns" for their children.
While they wouldn't be identified for a story, some parents from the Illawarra's northern suburbs told the Mercury more needed to be done to look after the students' welfare.
"Many kids are on the losing side of this, whichever way you look at things," one mother said.
"I think we need to be at home to stay safe but I'm concerned for my kids, especially for my daughter who is doing her HSC this year.
"I would like to see schools better accommodate the Year 12 students by having them attend classes with masks and appropriate distancing."
Others commenting on the private Woonona/Bulli Community Facebook page praised teaching staff and stressed it was unfair to expect teachers to put their lives at risk and teach HSC students at school.
These concerns come as schools throughout NSW again try to adapt to this new world of teaching.
Smith's Hill High School principal David Deitz said it was still early days but students were transitioning well to remote learning.
The government-funded co-educational academically selective secondary day school in Wollongong has introduced many measures to ensure students are kept engaged with learning during home schooling.
"To support students' remote learning, we have developed a modified timetable. Teachers are using a combination of direct instruction lessons and setting of self-directed student work," Mr Deitz said.
The school also learned a lot from home-schooling last year.
"When we implemented remote learning in 2020, we initially tried to replicate the on-site learning experience for students. We quickly recognised that having students spending over six hours in front of a screen, in addition to logistical issues faced by students in remote learning, were not working," he said.
"Our modified timetable this year has built upon the lessons learnt from 2020 and the need to allocate time for students to be active and manage screen time."
Mr Deitz said parents had been supportive and appreciative of the efforts of the teaching and non-teaching staff in supporting students during remote learning.
"The pace and depth of teaching in the remote learning setting certainly does have an impact on student learning outcomes. We saw this in 2020 and I expect, depending upon how long remote learning continues, we will see similar impacts in 2021."
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