Ms Thomson; her husband who works in emergency services; her daughter, 20, who works in retail; and her year eight son each shower and change before approaching the ground floor granny flat to visit her mother, 82, who has an impaired immune system and isn't leaving the house.

"If she got COVID-19 the likelihood of her surviving is not very high," Ms Thomson said.

"When we come home, we shower straight away and make sure we're all clean before we even talk to my mum.

"No-one wants to be responsible for Mum getting sick.

"I know the chances are really low, but just to be that one-off thing - to give it to her and to know what that would mean for her - it's a risk that we can't take."

NSW students returned to remote learning this week. Ms Thomson kept her son, Jack, 13, home from Warners Bay High for at least three weeks before the holidays and has not yet decided whether he will go back for the staggered return to classrooms from May 11.

Most students will start attending campuses one day a week.

"I'm still at wait and see," she said. "I'm not for sending him to school yet, I want to see what the numbers are going to be like."

Premier Gladys Berejiklian originally said she wanted all students back on campuses by the start of term three.

She has since said she will revise the timeline in the week starting May 25 and all students may be back in schools full-time within term two.

Ms Thomson said she was not worried about Jack falling ill.

"I do believe he'd be fine, but it's who he can then pass it on if he's exposed to it," she said.

"That's what they need to worry about - it's not the fact that our kids can still go to school and be safe and not be impacted by the disease themselves, but it's who they can pass it on to."

Ms Thomson has had a glimpse into the potential ripple effect.

She experienced COVID-19 symptoms - a high temperature, a slight cough and sore throat - on Easter Monday and had a test two days later, before she received the negative results on the Friday.

"For those three days my husband wasn't allowed to go to work and I was confined to the bedroom so I didn't touch anything else in the house," she said.

"I would ring my mum from upstairs. I also thought if I got it, the people I work with - there's another 20 all up on the floor - they'll be impacted because I've been in the kitchen. My husband was then going to have to have 20 days off.

"Since then I've been even more careful because I realise the impact it would have, not just on me and my family, but on everybody."

Ms Thomson said she didn't believe students who continued learning remotely beyond May 11 would be significantly disadvantaged.

"I don't believe that kids not going to school for a few months is going to impact them and knock them back permanently," she said.

"I think they're smart enough and flexible enough they'll pick up wherever they left off from.

"Everyone is struggling themselves not seeing their family and their friends and how to get through it, so why put the added pressure of having to go out and be exposed every day if we don't need to?

"If something happened to my mum there's four people in our house, we're all going to say 'Was it me?'"

Ms Thomson said another important consideration was that Australia is approaching winter.

"All these other countries that are still in this terrible place where so many people have died and been impacted, that's because it's happened in their flu season, we're only getting into it now," she said.

"Just because we've managed to flatten the curve now - which is great and I hope we never ever get to the extent they are - we still don't know what winter's going to bring.

"Sending our kids back in winter is not something I'm fussed on - that's when colds and flus and viruses start to bed in."

Mum-of-three Amanda Playford said she believed all students should continue learning from home until the government lifted its restrictions on gatherings and meetings.

"One day a week is not going to teach our kids," she said.

"For that one day a week where [students] will be on a rostering system they could be home, safe and away from any harm or anyone who may have a cold," she said.

"Our kids are not guinea pigs just for them to trial, to see whether they get sick.

"A lot of parents are angry with this choice made by the government and I hope that they will consider closing schools until at least the end of term two."