School psychologists have been put through extra training to help them support students who are struggling in the wake of the summer bushfire crisis.
Public school students return to class this week after a holiday period blighted by a series of unprecedented weather events in Canberra and the surrounding region.
Few students won't have been in some way touched by the events of the past six weeks, whether it be the bushfires on the NSW South Coast and Snowy Mountains, or the toxic smoke haze that has cloaked the nation's capital for days at a time.
The Orroral Valley fire continues to burn through Namadgi National Park, providing a reminder that the horror bushfire season is not yet over.
Visiting Lyneham High School on Monday to mark the start of term one, Education Minister Yvette Berry said school principals and teachers were conscious their students had endured an "unusual summer".
Ms Berry said the territory's 81 school psychologists had been put through additional training to help them assist students who might be experiencing stress, anxiety or trauma as a result of the summer's events.
School teachers will have access to extra training and support, while the ACT education directorate will also provide information to parents, she said.
Ms Berry suggested that rather than proactively discuss the bushfire crisis in the classroom, schools would be ready and waiting to support individual students when they needed it. She was conscious of "not creating problems where they didn't exist".
"One of the important things for our schools is making sure that they are safe and comfortable environments for our children and staff, to make sure that there is some normality as people return from what has been an unusual summer," she said.
School principals, particularly those in Canberra's south, will be keeping a close eye on air quality as the bulk of students return to class on Tuesday.
The Canberra Times last week reported that principals would be left to decide how to respond if toxic bushfire smoke re-enters the ACT.
The education directorate is advising principals to rely on "direct observations" of possible smoke, rather than published air quality readings, to dictate whether they allow their students outdoors.
