Many Auckland principals are relieved to have primary-aged students back in the classroom. Schools that reopen will take extra precautions, including masks for student's year four and up.
Other guidelines from the Ministry of Education will be applied as each school sees fit.
For two Manurewa schools in south Auckland, that will mean ignoring the suggestion for students to come back part-time or with staggered starts.
Finlayson Park School principal Shirley Maihi told Morning Report staggered starts and part-time attendance wouldn't work for her community.
"Our families are big families and go to perhaps two or three different schools, and we also need to have our tuakana-teina in place, where the big ones look after the little ones in the family.
"So, the part-time kind of attendance and the staggered starts will not work out."
It's possibly the same story for nearby Rowandale School, principal Karl Vassau said staff are still looking at the options.
"One of the options on the table is, like Shirley, going full bore. Because kids come to school as families and with the adults, they're not going to send the little one by herself or herself without the big sister who's in another classroom. So, we need to try and figure out a really good logistical way."
Maihi said the numbers would be manageable even if they opened to all students as she does not expect all of them to come back.
"I think we will manage the numbers that we get. I'm only expecting probably 50 percent of our children, and we have plenty of space, plenty of ideas of how to keep our children safe."
