In a cruel reminder of the past two years, Albury High School had to go back to remote learning this week.
After an outbreak of COVID among students and teachers, coupled with rising influenza cases, the school was advised to move years 8, 9 and 10 to remote learning for a three-day circuit breaker.
That was later extended to the whole week.
Years 7, 11 and 12 remained at school, but masks were required at all times for staff and indoors for everyone else.
"We just want to keep our kids and staff as safe as possible, and try to do something to break the back of this outbreak we've got within our community at the moment."
Albury High is among a growing number of schools that have reported illness outbreaks among staff and students over the past few weeks.
But Victorian Education Minister James Merlino last month ruled out a widespread return to remote learning, despite some schools struggling to find enough relief teachers to deliver classes.
Albury High has announced that it will return to normal operations on Monday, but this is not an issue isolated to just one school.
COVID-19 case numbers remain stubbornly high and, as this season's influenza starts to show its teeth, schools across the region are being hit hard.
Notre Dame College in Shepparton copped it a few weeks ago, experiencing what the principal described as "ridiculous levels" of COVID and the flu.
At one point they had up to 65 staff and 400 students away, which led to two weeks of different year levels learning from home.
"I was at a meeting with principals last week and they're all going through the same thing now," principal John Cortese said.
Chronic staff shortage
The major issue for schools is having enough staff to keep classes going.
There were so few teachers left standing at Albury High School that they couldn't run the remote classes themselves, and children had to use resources from the Department of Education website.
Craig Jory teaches at Murray High School in Lavington, and is a spokesperson for the New South Wales Teachers Federation. He said, at some schools, there could be one teacher in charge of 45 or 50 students, which is a big supervision issue.
"On that day-by-day basis your classroom may be down by half, or you may be covering other colleagues who are away. It's fairly stressful."
Mr Cortese said it was an ongoing issue.
Schools can only ask faculty members to take on other teachers' loads so many times per year, and Notre Dame College has already exhausted its full year's entitlements.
They also have a shortage of casual relief teachers (CRTs), who they would normally call upon in these situations.
Mr Cortese said last year they had a pool of 14 CRTs. This year they have four.
The Victorian Department of Education confirmed 11 government schools have had to move to the "last resort" of remote learning this year.
They said they were working closely with any schools facing workforce issues as a result of COVID.
"Whether it's through normal CRT process, using department staff who are registered teachers or our Job Opportunity Pool of retired, pre-service or career-break teachers, we're supporting schools to stay open and continue learning face to face," a spokesperson said.
Teaching's perception issue
Mr Cortese said the issue in education was "way bigger than COVID".
He said principals had been raising the alarm about teacher shortages for years.
"Three or four years ago, I and many other principals would have told people that education was on the edge of a cliff because nobody is going into teaching," he said.
Mr Jory said there was a particular shortage of teachers qualified in high school maths, sciences, and computer subjects.
"That was evident a long time before COVID," he said.
Mr Cortese said, paradoxically, schools were in crisis because all people heard about was schools being in crisis.
He said young people had been completely put off the profession.
Mr Cortese wanted more stories of how wonderful being a teacher could be, to encourage young people to take up the call.
"We need to get out there and tell stories about how great this profession is: you see a kid who may be struggling academically, and you move him or her up. You see a kid who's struggling wellbeing-wise and you turn their life around," he said.
"People make it out to be this horrendous job.
