COVID-19: Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School head Matthew O’Brien calls for review of banned camps

The head of a South West private school has added his voice to growing calls for the State Government’s ban on camps and excursions to be reviewed. Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School head Matthew O’Brien said a host of camps had been postponed as the new blanket ban came into effect and comes just after the school was left “disappointed” by the forced cancellation of its 50th anniversary celebrations. The prohibitions, which were announced last week by Education Minister Sue Ellery, comes as a number of Perth schools — and one in the South West — had students and teachers forced into isolation. Mr O’Brien also claimed that school camps were just as safe as normal learning environments and that as a boarding school, many of its students were already sleeping in close quarters. “We support the need for events to be reviewed to ensure that there is appropriate risk identification and mitigation in place, especially when it comes to COVID-19 management,” he said. “However, we trust that, in the coming weeks, the blanket ban on school camps will be reviewed. “A school camp environment, from both a safety and wellbeing perspective, is in many cases as safe as the day-to-day operational environments under which schools find themselves operating. “As a boarding school we are already operating a far more complex scenario than a camp at an isolated and contained location.” Ms Ellery said the decision came as authorities attempted to “strike a practical balance between keeping schools safe and ensuring students can have as normal a school experience as possible”. “Camps are to be postponed at this point because of the risk of transmission that they present, in particular, because of the shared sleeping arrangements,” she said. “They also typically involve close contact between students who eat together and share a common bathroom — they spend very long periods of time together in a closer environment than the classroom.” The West Australian reported last week camp owners, such as Forest Edge Recreation Camp director Graeme Watson will lose up to $300,000 in revenue as the snap ban comes at the busiest time of the year. “Students do activities outdoors in a maximum of 18 per group on camp whereas they are in an indoor classroom of 30 and can still go to balls,” he said. “Our dormitories all have the beds spaced more than 1.5m apart with doors left ajar overnight to maximise ventilation.” The scaling back of BCGS’ 50th anniversary celebrations were a direct result of the prohibitions against parents spending time on school grounds, Mr O’Brien said. “The cancellation was disappointing for many of our longstanding community members and our staff who worked so hard in preparing for the event, but I know that our community is strong, resilient and understanding of the ever-changing landscape in which schools are currently operating,” he said.