By Brendan Rees
The La-Brooy household in Berwick has become its own school – with six siblings using their dining table as a temporary classroom as they adjust to online learning.
Mr La-Brooy and his wife, Michele of Berwick have five children in primary school and one starting his first year of high school.
“I’m really proud of their resilience,” Mr La-Brooy said, explaining each of his children has a computer – with six different passwords and logins, while they shared one printer.
“Home schooling has always been an intense passion of mine. We’ve met the challenge head-on and smashed it,” he said, adding it was, however, challenging “going from class to class.”
“I need to release my computer for their Zoom meetings because one of their computers doesn’t have internet access and not all of them have proper sound.”
Meanwhile, Lynbrook resident Vanessa Watson, who is at home after being without work due to coronavirus, said her children’s transition to online learning had been “going OK” – however, they’re home Wi-Fi had buckled under pressure.
“We found first day that the W-Fi didn’t cope with three people trying to Zoom at same time,” she said referring to her husband, and their two teenage children.
“It was also very difficult to have a two-year old be quiet with three Zoom conversations going on. So basically the toddler and I are banished from half the house.”
In Langwarrin, Rhiannon Johnston, whose boys are in prep in Grade 3, said she was coping well but juggling work with makeshift classrooms at home was challenging – on top of her 18-month-old running around.
“So far the setups been really good from our school the teachers are very engaging and doing new videos and phone calls daily; that’s been great as it helps keep the kids focused.”
