If you’re an Education student who has questions about what school closures, online study and general COVID-19 impacts mean for your placements this Trimester or this year, this blog is for you!
The Office for Professional Learning has provided detailed updates on the OPL Coronavirus Information page.
The School of Education and the Office for Professional Learning (OPL) have made a decision to suspend all placements for Trimester 1 until later in 2020. There is much uncertainty around whether schools will continue to operate in the near future, so to allow for better planning and to allay any fears, the decision to postpone placements has been made.
As of now, schools are open. There are rumours about schools being closed or the school holidays being brought forward to slow the COVID-19 outbreak. Professional experience placements are still a requirement of accreditation and will not be waived so the Office for Professional Learning (OPL) is working on ways to support students to complete placements. Please remember, these measures may change as the COVID-19 containment rules are updated.
Please visit the OPL Coronavirus page for new Term 2 placement dates for 2020, and a helpful suite of Frequently Asked Questions. Following this information if you still have questions or concerns, you can contact the OPL directly through AskUNE.
We acknowledge these solutions may not assist everyone and may mean a delay in your progression through your course. During this time, the OPL will be as flexible as possible while ensuring procedures are followed to ensure your accreditation to teach and the integrity of our degrees remain unaffected.
This is a public health emergency that must be taken seriously. It may not affect you or be in your community, however, it can affect others and it has the potential to spread very quickly.
We thank you for your understanding and your patience as our teams do our best to assist you through these challenges.
