While educators were adapting their lessons to teach from afar, Sydney Catholic Schools’ (SCS) Child Protection Team had been bracing for these changes by creating remote learning guidelines to ensure young isolated learners are safe in their (home) school.

“Zoom and Google Hangouts are new mediums – it’s quite a novel thing to have your teachers teach into your home,” said psychologist Sandra Reynolds, who has been part of the Child Protection Team since April 2015.

“When used safely, online resources and programs can significantly enhance a student’s understanding of a concept. Children can be easily deceived online, it is far too great a responsibility for them to manage on their own.

“These guided cyber experiences in the classroom allow for exploration to occur within a safe and supervised environment. Simply said, feeling safe makes learning possible.”

Sydney Catholic Schools’ psychologist Sandra Reynolds. Photo: Kitty Beale

Ms Reynolds said the team based the new remote learning guidelines for parents and teachers at SCS on existing distance education and tele-health videoconferencing models, including those of Alice Springs School of the Air (ASSOA) and the Australian Psychological Society.

“People in remote areas have been accessing tele-health and online learning for a long time,” she explained.

ASSOA, for example, has been broadcasting to children in isolated communities throughout the Northern Territory and parts of South Australia and Western Australia for more than 49 years.

In ASSOA’s 1.3 million square-kilometre “classroom” students take part in online lessons with their classmates and then complete follow-up activities at home, with support from their home tutors (mostly parents).

“Feeling safe makes learning possible” – Sandra Reynolds

Closer to home, the Catholic school system in the Archdiocese of Sydney is educating more than 70,000 students, at different levels of learning, affluence and technological savvy.

“Sydney Catholic …