KEY POINTS:
Helen Paton remembers how nervous she was starting back at school in 1986.
The New Zealand Herald photographed her as a 6-year-old Papatoetoe Central School pupil awaiting a glimpse of her new teacher.
And it all came back to her yesterday when she took her own children, Brooklyn, 5, and Jackson, 7, to Buckland School, near Pukekohe.
They scanned the lists on the classroom doors to find out who their teacher was.
Mrs Paton said it's always worrying for a parent to send a child off to a new classroom with a different teacher.
"It's difficult, your heart aches for them," she said.
Brooklyn said she had just one friend in her class but liked her teacher.
This is her first full year of school. She started when she turned 5 last April and is already catching up to her older brother - he is in Year 3 this year and she is in Year 2.
Jackson said his little sister now has enough friends to look after her at lunchtime.
Brooklyn's favourite classroom activities are reading and writing. Yesterday she wrote a story, made cats out of paper and went for a swim in the school pool, she told the Herald.
She said she was looking forward to going back today.
Around 476,500 primary pupils and 276,230 secondary school students have started the 2009 school year between January 27 and today.
Four new schools opened in the Auckland region - Albany Senior High, Snells Beach Primary, and Mission Heights Primary and Mission Heights Junior High at Botany.
