Warrnambool education leaders have backed the state government's current stance for children to engage in home-based learning until the end of the term two, on June 29.
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That is despite the federal Education Minister and Wannon MP Dan Tehan calling for all schools across the nation to be open by May 31.
St Joseph's Primary School principal Michael Grey, who is also the president of the Victorian Association of Catholic Primary School Principals, said remote learning from home provided essential flexibility during the coronavirus pandemic.
He said he would be guided by the position of the state government and relevant authorities and endorsed the current position.
In school care and supervision is at present being provided for children if their family situation is such that they can't study at home.
"It's all working quite well. School, families and students are doing an amazing job at adaptability," he said.
"The program is established now and it's important to stick to routines as the benefits start in this unusual environment.
"To deviate from the plan would mean those routines will be lost."
Mr Gray said continuing the current arrangements was important, especially for young students, both from learning and health perspectives.
"There are benefits in terms of travel and our students are learning good social distancing and health requirements," he said.
"That message is being consistently shared in the community."
Mr Gray said while it was impossible to beat learning in the classroom, that given the current cononavirus situation education processes were going well.
"And we recognise the big challenge faced by parents who are also working from home," he said.
"The younger the students, the more challenging the online/remote program is because of the complexity of learning for young people.
"The older the students, the more directed they can be.
"I would like to recognise the efforts of all the teachers who are preparing lessons, communicating extensively with homes and reviewing the effectiveness on a daily basis.
"It's been a huge effort."
The principal's association president said the unique circumstances had led to a unique opportunity.
"It's a stunning opportunity to progress learning in the state of Victoria which promotes itself as the education state to both test and develop home learning links," Mr Gray said.
"We have seen what has worked well and what hasn't.
"I think parents have had the opportunity to really understand the complexity of issues facing teachers and there is a growing respect.
"More focused involvement can help with student learning.
"While one curve has been flattened another has progressed enormously."
Emmanuel College principal Peter Morgan said his school had fortunately been a long way down the path of online learning.
He said he would continue to be guided by the state government but consideration would have to be about how schools managed any changes.
Those considerations would relate to a range of issues such as pick-ups and drop-offs and student class sizes.
He said for classrooms to be effective one-on-one student/teacher assistance, guidance and feedback was essential.
"For those reasons I believe the continuation of the online model is a better model," Mr Morgan said.
"Fortunately we have a very robust IT infrastructure at the college. We are well down that pathway and that has made teaching online much easier for us. We will be able to continue to manage."
Mr Morgan said he had received a lot of positive feedback from parents working from home.
"They have been getting insights and understanding into learning that they would not get if they were at work," he said.
"We have 120 students involved in extra music lessons. Last week there was 100 per cent attendance in those lessons online.
"That's better than if the lessons were being held in school. We also had parents getting out their own instruments and joining in.
"It's been extremely positive."
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