Tangara School for Girls back to remote learning after Covid outbreak takes out teachers, student

An exclusive invitation-only school has been closed until ‘further notice’ after a Covid outbreak knocked out a third of its teaching staff and a single student.

All 7th to 11th grade students at Tangara School for Girls, in Sydney’s northern suburb of Cherrybrook, will return to distance learning over the next four days thanks to the handful of coronavirus cases.

The 12th grade students have already completed their school year.

In a letter to the school’s parents, principal Rita Sakr said the outbreak had left many of the teachers bedridden and unable to attend class.

“Over the weekend, a third of our secondary staff tested positive for Covid, putting pressure on the teaching, supervision and operational needs at our school,” said Ms Sakr.

“At this stage, there is only one confirmed case of Covid among our high school students.

“The school has decided to switch to distance learning from grades seven to eleven for four days or until further notice.”

Tangara School for Girls’ seventh to eleventh year classes will be forced to be taught at home after a student diagnosed with Covid. has suffered

Radio host Ben Fordham told his 2GB listeners the school had pressed the ‘panic button’.

“We all thought Australia had moved on from the bad old days of Covid when we talk about lockdowns, curfews and learning from home,” he said.

‘Tangara has about 600 students, one student has Covid and they have sent the entire senior year home.

“We understand the concern that a third of teachers are sick, but if you think about it, it sounds like they don’t have a backup plan to shut down an entire company when a third of the employees are unavailable.

“It sounds like they’re hitting the panic button.”

The school’s director of invitations (above) said a third of teachers were infected with Covid during an outbreak

NSW had 809 people hospitalized with coronavirus on Nov. 3, 17 of whom were in intensive care.

The state also saw 24 people die from Covid out of 12,450 positive cases in the week to November 3.

NSW has recorded a total of 3,561,546 Covid cases and 5,454 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

The school’s closure comes as experts begin to speculate that the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ATAGI) will recommend a fifth jab in the coming weeks, with some already calling on the government agency to recommend it.

University of South Australia epidemiologist Professor Adrian Esterman told News Corp it was time for ATAGI to recommend a fifth dose as the country was on the brink of another wave.

“Overall I would welcome a fifth dose, we are at the beginning of a new wave,” he said.

“More importantly, we have waning immunity. Most people have had their last dose a few months ago.”

Deakin University epidemiologist Catherine Bennett said millions of Australians were still without their fourth dose.

“Half of the people who qualify for the fourth dose haven’t had it yet, I think that’s actually more urgent,” she said.

Students were told they will be studying from home for the rest of the week or ‘until further notice’, leaving them unsure of when they will actually return

Commonwealth chief medical officer Paul Kelly also recently refused to rule out a Covid lockdown before Christmas as a new wave of the virus was on the way.

‘(Cases) are certainly increasing. How things will go in the future is a matter of speculation,” he told Sunrise.

“This is another variation of Omicron, from Omicron’s grandchildren, if you will.”

He added that while a new lockdown was not his “decision”, he did not believe another one would be “probable”.

“My advice right now is to be alert but not afraid,” he said.

dr. Kelly also urged people to stay tuned for boosters with officials checking whether high-risk groups should get their fifth shot.

“Now is the time to get that extra vaccine when it’s your turn,” Dr. Kelly said.

“At this point, we’re not considering further dosages if you’re already aware. But ATAGI will continue to look at that in the coming months.’