By RNZ
Auckland principals are disappointed the Government is not lifting the level 3 lockdown on Wednesday night.
Today's lockdown decision - delaying further reductions in alert levels across the country until Sunday 30, means a quarter of a million children will be learning from home until the start of next week.
Auckland Primary Principals Association president Stephen Lethbridge says the city's schools will do whatever they must, to be ready for the shift to level 2 on Monday.
"For schools, level 3 is really a tough place to be. We've got teachers at schools who are looking after bubble classes - so they're looking after children and their learning at school whilst maintaining their online and remote learning for their own classes.
"So level 3 is a tough place to be and we are definitely looking forward to a move to level 2."
Auckland Secondary Principals Association president Steven Hargreaves says even two more days of lockdown will harm students' learning and many schools had not asked for permission to run classes for some Year 12 and 13 students this week.
"The problem was a lot of the students were thinking we were gonna be back this Thursday, and teachers as well, and therefore we hadn't all taken advantage of that Year 12 and 13 opportunity to come back into school this week. Now we're thinking 'actually, it's going to be the entire week, maybe we do need to quickly work out how we can get ... Year 12 and 13 students on campus now'."
- RNZ
It's understood a NZDF aircraft and multiple helicopters are involved.