Australian Christian College Hume principal Sam Woods said some people had already been affected by COVID cases and missed the start of the 2022 school year.

"What we've noticed is a family, say, with four kids, Dad tests positive on the Monday, no one (else) tests positive until the Wednesday, another on the Saturday; they've got to isolate from then for a week," he said.

"It's knocking a few of our families out for a couple of weeks at a time rather than a couple of days."

Mr Woods said the school was "fully expecting" more COVID-related absences.

"We're well placed to deliver an in-person curriculum whilst keeping the couple of kids in each class that may not be there, keeping them going remotely at the same time," he said.

"We're being very nimble in the way we're setting things up."

IN OTHER NEWS:

Border and North East students are now returning to the classroom for a school year that includes regular rapid antigen tests and, in Victoria, new air purifiers.

Victorian Education Minister James Merlino said all 51,000 air purifiers had arrived ahead of the school year.

Other measures included new shade sails to support outdoor learning and a pool of inactive/retired teachers and school staff, and final year teaching students, to be employed for short stints as needed.

"I want to wish all students and staff heading to school this year all the very best for an exciting and much less disrupted school year," Mr Merlino said yesterday.

The NSW government yesterday announced a new $155 million program for Before and After School Care services, offering a $500 voucher to cover the parent gap fee component of the session costs.

"Every family with children at a NSW primary school is eligible for one voucher per child, which will provide each child with approximately 60 sessions of free BASC," Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell said.

Mr Woods said being a smaller school had helped Australian Christian College Hume distribute RATs to families more easily.

With 70 students from prep to year 8, the school had expanded last year by welcoming its first year 7 intake.

The principal took over this year after moving from Cathedral College Wangaratta and Sydney before that.

Mr Woods said parents had responded well to the expansion and final negotiations for a new school campus were under way.

"I am really grateful at this time that we can, with some level of being careful, we can resume what seems to be a fairly normal school year," he said.

"Being able to have readily available rapid tests so we can make sure the virus isn't coming on our school campuses is going to be a really useful tool so the kids can have at least a more consistent year..

"We're not back to fully normal yet ... but we're getting pretty close to it, which is, I think, a positive."

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