Canberra's Catholic schools could also cancel excursions, camps and other extracurricular activities as they try to prepare for an expected wave of COVID cases.

Victorian students over the age of eight will be encouraged to wear masks until the end of winter in school.

In a joint letter to parents and carers, public, independent and Catholic schools body heads in Victoria requested the students, as well as all staff, wear masks in classrooms until the end of winter.

"Students won't be required or expected to wear masks when outdoors and this expectation won't stop students participation in the full range of school activities, including music, sport and performances," the letter reads.

A spokeswoman for Education Minister Yvette Berry said the Education Directorate would consult with the office of chief health officer Dr Kerryn Coleman on whether mask advice was needed in the territory.

Public school teachers are already required to wear masks everywhere at school except the classroom, the spokeswoman said.

Mask rules were relaxed in ACT public schools in May.

Earlier this month, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said a territory wide mask mandate would prove unenforceable and only have a marginal effect on curbing the virus.

State and territory health officials have sought to encourage people to wear masks indoors and in places they are unable to maintain a safe distance from other people, but all have stopped short of mandating a fresh set of restrictions.

"A mask mandate universally would be unenforceable. People just won't do it. There would be widespread civil disobedience and it would just be impossible. I don't think any government is countenancing that," Mr Barr said at the time.

"There is clearly a role for ongoing mandates in certain settings and so I think that's where the focus will be."

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Ross Fox, the director of Catholic Education in the Canberra Goulburn archdiocese, was hesitant to take on board new mask mandates like Victoria.

"Masks are a good option for students in some circumstances, [but] masks mean that teachers can find it very difficult to communicate with students," he said.

"Also [with] many classrooms being well ventilated, it's appropriate that masks aren't needed for some of the core work of teaching."

While Mr Fox did not want to implement a mandate, he said his schools' first priority was to "ensure the wellbeing and safety of staff and students".

"I'd encourage all staff and students who would consider a mask an option to use one. That is proven and demonstrated to be an effective way of mitigating against COVID," he said.

Catholic schools will also no longer be book extra-curriculars for the term thee period in an attempt to reduce transmission and they will minimise extracurricular activities to avoid superspreader events.

"We alongside all schools in the ACT are doing all we can to prioritise the availability of teachers to provide a continuity of learning for students. So we're looking at anything that adds to the workload of teachers that's discretionary or optional and seeking to minimise that," Mr Fox said.

Mr Fox said there were "a range of circumstances" where some schools had pre-booked activities before the new variant and new wave became known, which they will be reassessing.

"In some cases, there's been excursions booked in the first fortnight of term. Schools will carefully assess those excursions for their safety, they'll have COVID safe plans [and] risk assessments," he said.

"You wouldn't expect additional activities to be booked in the near future."

He wrote to parents about the issue on Tuesday night.

"Catholic Education will request that schools limit movement of students and staff. This means that excursions, camps and many extracurricular activities may not take place this term as we focus on keeping our schools open and limit staff being out of school, thereby maximising their availability to teach classes," he wrote.

"We acknowledge that some families will be disappointed."

In the letter, Mr Fox said the schools were preparing for a potential tripling of cases and high infection rates for COVID and the flu could last until October, or possibly beyond.

"These infection rate predictions and widespread teacher shortages mean many school staff are likely to be significantly impacted and it may be a challenge for our schools to operate normally throughout Term 3," he said.

"At times, schools may only be able to supervise combined classes, supervise specific year levels only, or may even need to close for most or all students for a period of time."

Education Minister Yvette Berry on Monday said teachers and students should not soldier on if they have any mild symptoms of COVID-19, but she remained confident the school system could handle absences in term 3.

"My very clear message is that if you have COVID-19, and even if you have mild symptoms, you should not be coming to school ... there's no need to soldier on," Ms Berry said.

"We will work our way through this together as we always have. I know it's going to be difficult, but I've got confidence in our school communities that we'll be able to continue to do that."

In Term 1 this year, an average of 348 teachers were absent each day across the ACT public school system, figures from the Education Directorate show.

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