WHILE schools in Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire - under coronavirus lockdown - have five pupil-free days this week, in Horsham, it has been business as usual to start term three.
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On Monday, many schools in the city had their first day back at school, after learning from home in term 2.
This came as a great relief to 11-year-old Dayne, a student of Ss Michael and John's Primary.
"I'm excited because I get to do some stuff with all my friends. I haven't seen them for a long time," he said.
Another student, ten-year-old Jewell, said she preferred learning at school.
"It was a bit harder without the teacher explaining things," she said. "I needed more help with sometimes with my writing."
Parents were also glad education had moved from their houses back to the schools. Marcus Oxley, a chef at Cafe Jas, had to help educate his six-year-old daughter Harper while continuing to work his job.
"The kids got frustrated but we got through it. We'd give at least six hours (to Harper's education), or as much time as we could every day," he said.
To limit the amount of contact between people, the school allowed parents to pick up their children between 3.15pm and 3.25, where previously it had been 3.25 sharp they had to arrive.
Holy Trinity Lutheran College's first day back was Tuesday. Principal Daniel Weller said the students would not have noticed much change returning to campus compared to term two.
"It's pretty much just stage two restrictions still," he said. "Our communication to families has probably increased a little, particularly around ensuring students who are not well stay away," he said.
"Also communication on-campus to promote the healthy hygiene practices we started in term two."
At Haven Primary students returned on Monday. Campus manager Craig Amos said he was confident the students would complete their learning goals like they would in any other year, thanks to the hard work of their parents.
"We're treating it as business as usual," he said. "We want to keep things as normal as possible in terms of conversations part of that is we know students have own interpretation of what comes up in the media but we want to work with them."