IMOGEN Lyne spent just one full day in the classroom before returning to remote learning.
The year five student, 11, attends Hamilton South Public School, where principal Mark Warren asked families on Tuesday to collect their children after a member of the school community tested positive for COVID-19.
The school has been closed for contact tracing and cleaning and staff and students have been asked to self-isolate pending further advice.
Imogen's mum Sally Ebert said parents and carers were "in pretty good spirits" when they collected their children.
"They seemed to think the school handled it swiftly and were doing it all calmly," Ms Ebert said.
"I think it's going to be the new normal and we are all navigating this at the same pace.
"I think it would be extremely difficult on the school's end to suddenly get that call that 'We've got to close down the school as quickly as we can' kind of thing, just as they've made all the arrangements to get all the kids back to school. I really feel for the principal and all the teachers who were doing an amazing job trying to get kids to parents as we were all waiting outside.
"It's disappointing that we're only one day in, but it's just such an unpredictable situation that we're in that that's just the way it is.
"Now we're just waiting to hear some more news to see if they still need to isolate...it's just a waiting game."
Ms Ebert said she drove Imogen home and so both would stay away from Imogen's brother and dad until they received further advice.
"I said to my daughter 'Are any of your friends worried?' and she said 'No, I don't think so', so I think the messaging from the teachers was all handled pretty well," she said.
"I'm sure there will be parents who are nervous now and kids who are nervous because it is very close to home in that kind of way, which I guess we weren't expecting, even though the Hunter's numbers are going up, or aren't stabilising."
Ms Ebert said she was confident the school was minimising risk where possible, by requiring all staff to be fully vaccinated, limiting mixing between cohorts and not allowing external visitors on site.
"They do say kids can get it but hopefully their symptoms aren't as bad and they don't seem to suffer as much, but I will be very happy when she turns 12 next year and she can get vaccinated."
She said Imogen was coping well, apart from being disappointed she had to miss gymnastics.
"You sort of feel like you're getting a little bit of normality back, but it is kind of two steps forward, one step back," she said.
"I'm sure some people will be thinking we shouldn't have gone back to schools so early and other people thinking we should have gone back earlier. I think there's no right answer at the moment. it's taking one day at a time."
