Bathurst's Holy Family, MacKillop adjust quickly to lockdown changes

Almost all primary and secondary students have begun learning remotely, with only children of essential workers allowed to attend schools.

Holy Family Primary School principal Kevin Arrow said they only have about 10 per cent of their students actually attending the school.

"Last year all the schools were open. This year, and it's because of the Delta strain, I think, the exact wording from the government is parents and carers must keep children across primary and secondary school at home unless they need to be at school," he said.

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Students still attending school will complete work prepared for them that coincides with the online work set.

"For the younger kids, it starts with some printed material, so we'll have some printed packs of material for them," Mr Arrow said.

"And then the older primary kids, the main two online platforms we use are Google Classroom and Seesaw.

"There's other programs you can use. We have a subscription to a program called Mathletics, so each child has an account and the teacher can assign work personalised to the student's level and they can work on that at home."

Mr Arrow said the transition to remote learning has been well-received by parents, with everyone accepting of the fact that this has been put in place to protect students and the wider community.

"Our parents have been great just supporting the way things have gone and it's all about protecting our own health and safety in terms of the virus, but also our wellbeing and our mental health," he said.

MacKillop College principal Steven Muller said his school had also received great co-operation during the changes.

"Parents and students are very supportive. They understand that this is just what we have to do under the public health orders," he said.

Unfortunately for year 12 students, they were scheduled to sit their second week of HSC trials this week.

Year 12 students will continue their preparations with the hope to recommence their trials next week provided the lockdown is lifted.

"Rather than making decisions before we know, we're just going to make decisions on what we know for the moment while planning for the longer term just in case," Mr Muller said.