The senior centre includes seven classrooms and a senior common room area.

Students were meant to enjoy the new building at the start of this term but missed out because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kalianna principal Peter Bush said it was great to have the students back in the classroom.

"The exciting thing is the senior students now have their own common room," he said.

"We're a P-12 school and the scenarios have always been that the senior students have had to hang out with the primary students. They now have their own space."

Read more: Kalianna School, Bendigo Special Developmental School move to remote learning during COVID-19 pandemic

All Kalianna students returned to face-to-face classes on May 26. Mr Bush said the transition had been smooth.

"As we predicted, the students were really excited to come back to school," he said. "They have transitioned back really easily.

"We have been keeping the primary and secondary students separate.

"We have a staggered the starts and ends of the day. The parents have been really good at adjusting to that."

Mr Bush said some families had chosen to keep their children at home for health and safety reasons.

With some staff also required to stay at home, Mr Bush said the school had adopted some new measures.

"We identified that some students really benefited and excelled in remote learning," Mr Bush said. "So the staff who can't come back are continuing the remote learning options for those students.

"For example, we had one student who hadn't attended school for 18 months before COVID-19, but they attended every day during remote learning.

"So we now have six students doing remote learning either full time or part time. It's really exciting that we have been able to discover that."

Mr Bush said the school would continue to hold staff meetings, assemblies, and other gatherings virtually.

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