Principals to use five senses - not air quality data - to guide bushfire smoke response

Public school principals will be left to decide whether their students should be kept indoors if hazardous bushfire smoke re-enters the ACT.

And principals are being told to rely on their senses - rather than air quality data - to guide their response.

The education directorate has published advice for schools on how to respond to potential air quality issues when students return to class next week.

After a fortnight of relatively clear skies, Canberra has been cloaked in smoke at times this week as the Orroral Valley fire continues to burn out of control in Namadgi National Park.

Schools are already facing potential disruption from the coronavirus. Students and teachers who have travelled to Wuhan in China, or have had close contact with a confirmed case of coronavirus, are being told to stay at home for 14 days after returning to Australia.

In the midst of the worst period of air pollution in early January, the ACT education directorate sought expert advice on the potential need to close schools if conditions persisted.

School closures are no longer on the cards.

Instead, it will respond by backing in school principals to "make decisions that are right for their staff and students, based on the local conditions".

In "mild conditions", schools might keep younger children indoors and limit physical activities "as much as possible".

In "poorer conditions", schools might cancel outdoor activities or school excursions, the directorate said.

The directorate's "response guide", published on Friday, warned schools against basing their response on air quality data, saying the published readings only provided an "indicative view of potential air quality issues within a broad geographical area ... and was not sufficient to guide local responses".

Air quality data is monitored at three stations in Canberra; Civic, Florey and Monash.

The directorate said air quality was better assessed through "direct observations". That includes:

• Looking - for visible signs of smoke or haze, check windows and doors are used appropriately, and ensure activities are not affecting the indoor air quality;
• Smelling - check for odours indicating that smoke may be present. Note specific areas/rooms that are affected;
• Feeling - Check air is flowing from vents; and
• Listening - to the concerns of the students and staff. Do they experience any air quality related symptoms? Listen for unusual equipment noises that may indicate potential problems.

Air quality should be assessed daily to determined the "impact level" of the smoke on staff and students, according to the directorate's advice. Different responses are recommended depending on the severity of the conditions.

All students and staff should be kept indoors if the "impact level" was assessed as "high", the protocol said.

The directorate's advised approach to handling the smoke differs from what has been adopted at Canberra's child care centre. At Woden Early Childhood Centre, for instance, staff are monitoring hourly air quality readings to determine if children are allowed outside.

The directorate said the advice had been developed in consultation with ACT Health, Worksafe Commissioner Greg Jones, the education union and ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Association.

The association's president, Kirsty McGovern-Hooley, was comfortable with the government's approach, although she would have liked to see air quality monitoring done in individual schools.

Ms McGovern-Hooley said she would not have supported school closures, as she emphasised the importance of helping children and teenagers return to a routine after the summer's traumatic events.

"There is a lot of concern and anxiety among parents - it has been a really difficult summer," she said.

Speaking on Tuesday before the Orroral Valley fire reached emergency level, Chief Minister Andrew Barr was confident bushfire smoke wouldn't cause significant disruptions to the start of the school year.

"All the evidence suggests that it [the smoke] will not come back in the way that it was on those really severe days [early in January] - there just isn't the fires all around us burning at the same intensity," he said.

Mr Barr said the "obvious advice" would be to keep students indoors if air quality reached hazardous levels.