Bathurst schools adjusting to COVID rules

"Everyone's been very good and very compliant," MacKillop College principal Steven Muller said.

"They've got their rapid antigen test twice a week ... masks are required both indoors and outdoors whilst at school at the moment and all the social distancing and cohorting at break times and trying to minimise close contact where possible.

"Other than that, we're trying to keep it pretty low key; we want to get on with our major role of providing quality education."

Mr Muller said it's important for the students to focus on their education and return to a routine and some form of normality.

ALSO MAKING NEWS: 'Worst flooding in 70 years': Big clean-up awaits at Abercrombie Caves

The school wants to keep students and staff as safe as possible while not creating a stressful environment.

"We try to keep things as normal as we can and try not to overemphasis it; we want to make sure that they're safe but make sure that they're focused on school," Mr Muller said.

"They've all come back in good spirits and seem excited for the year ahead."

ALSO MAKING NEWS: Three minutes is sufficient in the eyes of some councillors

Primary school students, meanwhile, are following similar guidelines.

Parents are being asked to rapid antigen test their children on Mondays and Wednesdays, masks are recommended for students in year three and above, and no parents are allowed on school grounds for at least the first four weeks of the term.

Holy Family Primary School acting principal Margie Locke said with the ever-changing rules and regulations, communication with parents and students is important.

The school is doing its best to keep everyone well-informed and to begin the school year as positively as possible while abiding by COVID regulations, she said.

ALSO MAKING NEWS: Young musicians needed to help get the band back together

Ms Locke said that regulations have been implemented in a four-week block, so what school life will look like when week five commences isn't yet certain.

"We just do all of the things that are required to keep the environment as safe as we can," she said.

"Ventilation, staff masked all the time, cleaning surfaces, social distancing - all of those things we just keep working really hard at.

"We just want things to go along normally for our kids.

"At a time like this, there can be so much anxiety created around it all; we want to just try to keep it ticking over and making school as interesting as we can with rich curriculum."

One of the main changes schools have had to implement is conducting assemblies and lunch breaks in a way that limits the number of students who are in the same area.

Usually, Holy Family would have an election assembly where students looking for captaincy roles deliver a speech to the school.

This year they delivered the speeches via Zoom - and the school says the new arrangement worked well.

Each classroom watched the students give their speeches and then voted for who they wanted to receive leadership roles.

The school also made some changes to the kindergarten orientation day, which was held on Tuesday, and was deemed a success by Ms Locke.

"We've got a really great outdoor space at the front of the school ... and that worked really well in the open air and the kindy teachers were fabulous with their stations set up," she said.

Ms Locke and MacKillop's Mr Muller said they are hoping for a positive year.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: