Private schools’ bid to retrieve internaitonal students

“If they do walk away from their education here, they can’t just walk into their own system because they’ve missed certain elements of it,” he said.

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“The impact on them if we don’t find a way to bring them back as soon as it is safe is going to be quite profound.”

St Leonard’s is one of 40 Victorian schools working to present to the Chief Health Officer and government departments a range of proposals for bringing back foreign students.

The schools, which include Melbourne Girls Grammar, Firbank and Trinity Grammar, warned in August that disruption to Victoria’s international student market posed an “immediate existential challenge” that left many non-government schools without a “vital revenue stream”.

Victoria has more international school students than any other state or territory, with more than 9500 enrolled in 2018, primarily from China, Vietnam and Cambodia. Almost two-thirds attended government schools.

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Under the new proposal, students from COVID-safe places – China, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong – would fly to Australia on exclusively commissioned flights that would carry about 160 students.

The schools propose teachers would meet students at the airport and stay with them in quarantine at venues ranging from Howard Springs quarantine camp in Northern Territory to empty ski lodges in Mt Buller, inner-Melbourne hotels that have been approved for quarantine and school boarding houses.

Another group of schools, led by the Australian Boarding Schools Association, is proposing to use empty Gold Coast hotels to quarantine students in AFL-style hubs.

Annette Rome, principal of St Margaret’s and Berwick Grammar, said the “fact that families are prepared to consider options like a two-week quarantine in the Northern Territory before they get to Victoria reflects how keen the families are to get their children back into the school system here. We know the attention has been on the tertiary sector, which is fine, but there are a significant number of students in the secondary sector that I know all schools – government, independent and Catholic – want back in the country so they can complete their education”.

Toorak College, which has kept its boarding house open throughout the year rather than lose international students to coronavirus border closures, said Australia had a moral obligation to bring back students.

Principal Kristy Kendall said: “We’ve been able to arrange a network of charter flights. No, they’re not cheap solutions, but neither is them having no educational pathway if they stay in China.”

Oakleigh Grammar is organising accommodation and supervision for international students who will stay in Australia over the summer break rather than risk not being able to rejoin in term one next year.

The remaining international students at St Leonard’s will go to the school’s outdoor education facility to kayak, sail and ride bikes.

The Department of Health did not respond to a request for comment.