Today’s announcement by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian that students will return to school from May 11 (week three of term two), has been received with mixed feelings by local parents.

Lismore parent Binnie O’Dwyer is still unsure if she will send her two children – in Years 6 and 9 - back to school, under the Premier’s piecemeal approach. 

The Premier has said initially, students will return will one day a week and then, progressively, two days a week. 

“And then we hope by the end of term two we'll be in a position to have students going back to school in a full-time capacity, by term three," Ms Berejiklian said.

Parents will also be asked to stagger drop-off and pick-up times, and recess and lunch breaks will be staggered within schools.

Binnie is a single mother, working full-time and said the premier’s suggested return guidelines sounds complicated.

“I would prefer an all or nothing approach,” Binnie said.

“Keeping track of which day is their school day or what time is the lunch break is will be hard to manage for me. It might be easy for some parents, but I work full time too.

“It’s already a bit overwhelming with the amount of email communication I need to keep on top of from the school.

"They are sending one email per subject per day for the online education delivery.

“It’s tricky knowing what to do. Learning online is hard for one of my kids and we have one computer for three people in our house. 

“I know the kids would both be willing to go back to school if they knew all their friends were there, but they might not all be there at the same time,” Binnie said.

“I’m happy to comply with the rules, but initially I thought we’ll just wait until term three – then I know they are safe and engaged at school each day.

“If they miss six months of school, they won’t die – they are relaxed and happy.”

Extra safety measures

Premier Berejiklian also announced extra measures to ensure safety would be set up at schools, including extra cleaning, sanitiser and health provisions - including forehead thermometers and health equipment in sick bays.

"We've made sure we have used this time not just to build up our online capacity, in case children - or a proportion of them - need to continue learning from home, but we've also made sure we have enough hand sanitiser, soap, and all those things which make a school community feel safe, not just be safe," she said.

"Schools will also have capacity for temperature checks where they think it's appropriate. There will also be extra cleaning of playground equipment and other things during the day.

"This is really to ensure that not only are our school communities safe, but everybody feels safe within them, whether you're a parent, student and of course our teachers."

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said individual schools would have "flexibility and discretion" while managing the gradual return of students.

"We want them to make sure they are having about a quarter of students on campus each day, but how they break that group up will be a matter for them," Ms Mitchell said.

"But we are asking them to certainly consider family groupings, keeping siblings together, so that will make it a lot easier for parents as we transition back to normal schooling."

Ms Mitchell also said casual teachers would be guaranteed work in term two, if they had already done 10 days of teaching in term one.