By Luke Voogt
East Geelong Primary School preps celebrated their 100th day between two separate lockdowns last Wednesday.
Victoria exited ‘lockdown 5.0’ days before the preps celebrated, only for the state to go into lockdown yet again the day after.
“We were very lucky to get it in on the Wednesday,” prep teacher Erin Sheils said, as classes again returned onsite this Tuesday after lockdown eased in regional Victoria.
“We were excited to be back today and the kids couldn’t wait to see each other. They definitely miss each other.”
Ms Sheils described the preps as “resilient” and said online learning had a few silver linings
“It’s been really good to get the parent involvement – I think parents are really aware of how we teach classes now, which is great.
“I think as a school community it has brought us closer.”
She said she focused on making classes over Webex as normal as possible.
“We pop online and I’ll read them a story, like I normally do. We still do performing arts, sing together as a class and learn [letters].”
Parents, teachers and students were more prepared for online classes than last year, despite the stop-start nature of recent lockdowns, she said.
“The first lockdown in April was all very new for us, and there was a lot of trial and error.
“It’s a lot more streamlined now because we’ve had the practice. If we went into lockdown tomorrow, we’re ready.”
