MOST schools, either yesterday or today, will be back in play. Children will be heading to school with all the items dutifully purchased from their stationery list. They'll have their uniforms and their lunches. And, in the case of many secondary schools, they'll have their BYODs.
The concept of Bring Your Own Device, being a laptop or - more likely these days - a computer tablet like an iPad, is often raised when the discussion of "free" state education is brought up. In the manner of utopian New Zealand, children are supposed to receive a free education through primary and secondary schools.
Since I am a board of trustees member, I'm under no illusions that schools do not receive enough funding to meet this non-existent concept of a golden age utopian education system.
Every school does what it can to find resources. I would argue that far too much time is spent organising events - such as galas - and chasing grants, when education should remain the primary focus.
But a huge resource for schools are parents. Parents invest big sums of money in their children. Kids cost money, there's nothing new about that. Some schools are fortunate enough to have parents taking on a front-line role in generating money, by forming PTA associations.
