Working parents in Gunnedah have applauded community efforts to provide alternative arrangements for their children after schools and early learning providers were shut this week due to flooding.
Education facilities on Bloomfield Street were closed throughout much of this week as major flooding impacted the area.
St Mary’s College was closed on Monday and Tuesday, becoming operational again on Wednesday.
The school was closed after advice from the Catholic Schools NSW as well as forecasts from NSW Police and SES about ongoing road closures and local flooding.
St Mary’s re-opened on Wednesday but was still missing many of their students from Boggabri, Narrabri and Carroll.
St Xavier’s Primary School was also reopened yesterday.
Gunnedah Public School, which is located closer to flood zone, remained closed on Wednesday.
Local mum and Gunnedah shire deputy mayor Kate McGrath said her son Yogi was among those unable to attend school early this week.
Ms McGrath felt “quite fortunate” to work from home for the first two days of the school closure.
On Wednesday, she took advantage of the ‘flood break’ out-of-school care provided by the Gunnedah PCYC.
On hearing news about the school closures, PCYC manager Jess Blair threw open the doors to assist those caught up in disruption.
“I thought it’s something we can do to help working families,” Ms Blair said.
She said the free service assisted about 10 children each day who were unable to attend school due to flooding.
Ms Blair said some of those children attending were also directly impacted by the flood.
