HSC students, Patrick D* and Lucy L*, currently have permits to enter their school. But when trials kick off next week, these permits will expire, leaving them unable to sit some of their exams.
Cross-border commissioner James McTavish said earlier this month that Victorian students will have to learn from home under the state’s stage three restrictions.
"The only reason they can learn at school is if they can't learn from home," Mr McTavish said.
It will leave up to 70 students at Trinity Anglican College unable to cross the border next week. But the biggest concern is for the school’s HSC students.
Lucy L is a high-performing year 12 student at Trinity Anglican College. She plans to study paramedics and nursing at university next year.
“My results are really important to get into those courses,” Lucy told The Feed.
“Obviously, it is a very stressful situation. I just get dressed every morning and get to the border. And I fear that I'm going to get turned around and not able to come to school,” she said.
“It's just really unfortunate and a really high-stress situation that we're put in, with an intense amount of anxiety, really.”
Lucy said the constant disruptions of the pandemic have inevitably taken a toll on her mental health.
Trinity Anglican College Source: The Feed
“With our first round of quarantine, obviously, we were all online. But everyone at our school and lots of other schools were in the same situation,” she said.
“Now it’s just a different ballgame. We're in a situation where there are very few of us that are going to miss out on the opportunity to learn in the classroom before really crucial days in our HSC.”
Patrick is an advanced year 11 student, who’s currently completing some HSC courses at the school.
He said he’s “missed out on a lot of learning” in the past few months and now is facing an uncertain situation with the trial exams -- which are worth up to 30 per cent of students’ final marks.
“It takes 30-40 minutes to cross the border. I get to school late every day 10 to 15 minutes, and I just miss out on a lot of learning,” Patrick told The Feed.
“Getting ready for the HSC is probably one of the most important things I've done up to this point. So, you know, being a bit disadvantaged in it, I’m not too happy with that,” he said.
“Vaccum of communication”
The principal of Trinity Anglican College, Justin Beckett, says there's been a “vacuum of communication” from the government about where this will leave HSC students.
“We've been requesting exemptions now for several weeks for our year 11 and 12 students, and we just don't get any communication back from NSW Health,” Mr Beckett told The Feed.
“And so we've been very patient, and we've been waiting in good faith, but we're running out of time,” he said.
The situation isn’t “equitable or reasonable” for students and staff, Mr Beckett claims.
Justin Beckett is the Principal of Trinity Anglican College. Source: The Feed
“As a community, we're very happy to help in this fight against the pandemic. But what we're seeing is that our students are essentially the casualties here because there are no cases here on the border,” he said.
HSC Teachers unable to cross the border
Three HSC teachers at the school also live on the Victorian side of the border and will be unable to enter the school from next week.
“The difference of getting six exemptions would mean that we can deliver all of our courses instead of only 80 per cent. And it would mean that these students will be set up to the success that they deserve after all these years of hard work,” Mr Beckett said.
These teachers play a critical role in preparing year 12 students for the real HSC exams, according to Mr Beckett.
“Keep in mind, we're only a few weeks away from the end of the course,” he said.
“And in some cases, because of the code of disruptions, some of our courses are behind. Some of them are trying to make up desperate content. It's just so unreasonable to have teachers or students not able to come to school.”
A NSW Health spokesperson told The Feed that Victorian students and teachers can use their permits for 14 days until midnight on Friday, August 21 and “then this permit will expire”.
The trials run from 19-28 August 19-28. NSW Health did not clarify what impact this would have on HSC students living in border towns.
“There will be process for consideration for an exemption from the restriction on entry to NSW for children currently completing Stage 6 or their Year 12 equivalent along with staff who deliver Year 12 equivalent education, if these children and staff are not eligible for a Border Zone Permit,” the spokesperson said.
“This exemption process is in development. In the interim, holders of a current day school visitor permit can continue to use this permit until midnight on Friday 21 August.”
A spokesperson at NSW Education Standards Authority told The Feed: "students unable to travel to their trial exams due to border restrictions need to follow their school’s advice and process".
"NESA is aware of every HSC student impacted by Victorian border restrictions and is working closely with their schools to make alternative arrangements should they be unable to travel to NSW for an HSC performance, oral language or written exam," the spokesperson said.
NESA said it "is ready to implement HSC exam contingencies for a wide range of COVID-19 scenarios" but did not provide detail about what options would be available for impacted students.
'It’s becoming wearing'
Fiona Elgin is a parent of a year 12 student at Trinity Anglican College.
Due to the permits expiring next week, her son’s advanced math teacher, who lives in Victoria, will be unable to enter the school grounds.
“It’s not just getting through the HSC, it's also having that prerequisite for university entry. So that subject, in particular, is a high focus point,” she said.
“We're a very resilient family generally but it's becoming very wearing because we are constantly saying, ‘focus on the big picture, deal with what you can’. And that's all logical but there's a point at which that strain becomes more difficult.”
Elgin said while the community respects the public health orders, she can’t understand “why teachers and students are still precluded”.
“We've got freight that goes in and out of Melbourne. And going into supermarkets, all of those places are still functioning, relatively speaking. Schools have been represented as safe environments,” Elgin told The Feed.
“So I think in the first instance, the NSW government needs to address why permits are not being issued, why they can't be addressed in a more timely manner,” she added.
“I don't think it's equitable, particularly for students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds who haven't had access to education.”
She told The Feed she’s hoping that the NSW government eventually considers implementing a solution equivalent to the Victorian model.
Trinity Anglican College Source: The Feed
The Victorian government it would individually assess the adverse impacts that COVID-19 has had on each student and adjust their VCE results and Atar accordingly.
“We’ll look at things such as school closures, we’ll look at things such as long absences. We’ll look at things, for example, such as significant increase in family responsibilities as a result of Covid-19 and we’ll, of course, consider the mental health and wellbeing of students during this period,” the state’s education minister, James Merlino, said in a press conference.
“A massive disadvantage”
Lucy and Patrick are just days away from their trial exams. They said it’s been hard to focus when they still do not know whether they’ll be able to sit all of their exams.
“We are competing against students from Sydney that are still able to sit in a classroom face-to-face with teachers and often not being able to have that same opportunity is just a massive disadvantage to our whole end result really,” Lucy said.
“That's what it all comes down to is: what does the future hold for us? Are we going to be considered by universities in our situation? Are they gonna understand the disadvantage that we have faced? It’s really uncertain.”
*Surnames omitted for privacy reasons
