Auckland principals are confident this week's lockdown will have little impact on children's learning - as long as it is only for three days.
Rowandale School principal Karl Vasau says the community appears to be better prepared for dealing with the latest lockdown. Photo: Supplied
About 250,000 school students are learning from home for the duration of alert level 3 and principals have said some would find a longer lockdown difficult, because they did not have internet connections at home.
They said the fact the lockdown was happening so early in the year presented its own challenges.
Albany Senior High School principal Claire Amos said the school started the year with a plan for dealing with another lockdown but Sunday's announcement was still a shock.
She said last year's lockdowns happened after classes were well established and this week's shut down would be a bit different.
"This year the challenge is it comes at a point where classes were only just starting last week and teachers are only just getting to know their learners so that adds another level of complexity for our learners and for our teachers," she said.
James Cook High School principal Grant McMillan said students were still enrolling so it was a slightly tricky time to have them learning from home.
"We've only had students in class last week and we've still got students enrolling and changing their courses, so it's slightly disruptive in that respect. It does mean though that some of the online courses haven't been set yet because classes are still being confirmed.
"It will only be disruptive if some students take a longer time to come back when this lockdown is over than they perhaps ought to."
James Cook High School principal Grant McMillan. Photo: RNZ/Dan Cook
McMillan said the school had just two students attend yesterday because their parents had to go to work and they were too young to stay home alone.
He hoped the lockdown would not cause anxiety among students.
"For many students, knowing that it's just for three days, or in their minds it's just for three days at this stage and it's just after the start of the school year, there'll be a sense of novelty in there," he said.
"If that changes we'll have to start to gear up what we do in that support space but there's also some students who, in their family setting, this can be quite anxious for them."
Rowandale School principal Karl Vasau said his teachers were preparing online resources and printed resources to send home to students if the lockdown was extended beyond three days.
"Up until Wednesday we're asking parents just to stay home, stay safe, stay warm and just provide some opportunities for their children," he said.
Vasau said the school had laptops it could give to families who did not already have them, but they were not much use for those who did not have an internet connection.
"We are prepared to roll them out again, but it's just going to homes with no internet. A lot of internet and device use and accessibility in homes is via phones. It's not very good to use phones for home learning because the children need big screens to see pictures and to engage with their classmates."
He said the lockdown had come at a relatively good time for the school.
"It's good that it's this early. We're into week three, teachers have been focusing over the last two weeks on connecting with their children and just making sure that everyone feels safe, going through routines," he said.
However, he said the school had cancelled two start-of-year events that would have welcomed new students and their families.
He said the community appeared to be better prepared for dealing with the latest lockdown.