Schools across the region are yet to hear when thousands of tests promised by the Victorian government will arrive, just one week out from the start of term one.

St Pius X Parish School Principal Joe Ewing is anxiously awaiting the arrival of tests.

"The unforeseen thing is we haven't got them yet and how to deliver them to families before day one," he said.

"I can see myself delivering some to families who can't get to school and to staff who haven't got them.

"It's going to be a challenge, we will have to wait and see how it will work.

"It's an invitational thing and we'll be encouraging teachers and parents to do it."

Parents will be given five tests per child and will be strongly recommended to test twice weekly at home for the first month of term one.

Merri River School Warrnambool acting principal Joanne Roache hopes its batch of RATs will arrive soon with students and staff recommended to test five days each week due to the higher risk of severe illness for medically vulnerable children.

"I think it will be challenging for the students, parents and staff but we will try our best to keep the school going and work through like we've worked through other challenges," Ms Roache said.

"We haven't yet received any communication about the rapid tests, and we start back in a week."

Like many industries plagued by staffing shortages, school communities are rounding up any casual relief teachers ahead of predicted impacts.

But even before the pandemic, backup teachers were in short supply across the region.

READ MORE: 'Still a teacher at heart': Retirees ready to go back to school to fill shortage

"As probably most schools are, we're feeling a bit nervous about staffing; we have quite a large staff group so it will be interesting to see how it plays out, we had staff shortages prior to this anyway," Ms Roache said.

"I think it's a wait and see game to see what happens."

The tight-knit rural school community of Hawkesdale P12 College looks forward to a return to the classroom after a disrupted year of remote learning in 2021, assistant principal John Ralph said.

"We want children back in school, back to face-to-face learning and RATs are one way of helping that to happen," he said.

"There is some anxiety within the general community and school community about school resuming but we've put in place all the recommendations of the department, including plenty of sanitiser and air purifiers in classrooms and masks for grade three and above.

"We'll be back to using all those processes we're well used to and very much look forward to a year absent of remote learning."

The school enthusiastically took up the COVID vaccine when it expanded to 16s and above last year.

It comes as the The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners raised concerns on Monday about the low level of vaccine coverage in the five to 11-year-old cohort ahead of term one.

President Dr Karen Price warned that practices delivering COVID-19 vaccines needed a helping hand.

"Term one of school starts next week, yet just one in four children aged five to 11 have had their first Pfizer vaccine dose and the vast majority of kids must wait eight weeks before receiving their second," Dr Price said.

"Although there are plenty of children's vaccine doses in Australia, the challenge is getting those supplies into practice fridges and then into arms. So, the current deliveries of 100 or 200 vaccines a week per practice are not enough when you consider that some practices have well over 1500 children in this age group on their books.

"GPs are still reporting doses not arriving on time or insufficient stock being delivered. So general practice teams then have the unenviable task of ringing families and telling them that their child's appointment must be cancelled. This is causing a lot of stress and anxiety and, unfortunately, some people are once again taking their frustration out on exhausted nurses and receptionists."

Premier Daniel Andrews said the surveillance testing regime was about curbing inevitable Omicron outbreaks in school settings.

"It's everybody across the board testing with the full and certain knowledge that there will be cases, but the more of those we find the more of those will be at home isolating not infecting everybody else," Mr Andrews said.

"It won't be to say stay home, it'll be right, there's been a case and your son or daughter may have been in contact with that person, so please monitor for symptoms and use the tests if you are positive or if you have symptoms."

IN OTHER NEWS: