EVEN when Louise and Nathan Morgan's three children weren't attending Redhead Public School's physical classrooms, they never felt far from their teachers.
Year six student Lachlan, 11, and kindergarten twins Sophia and Olivia, five, not only received morning video messages from their teachers, watched recorded lessons and participated in daily Zoom video conference calls, they'd pass the school on their increasingly frequent family walks.
"The girls were really missing school and we'd wave at their staff room when we walked past and again at the principal's office," Mrs Morgan said.
"Olivia caught a stick insect one day and we even brought it on a walk past the school."
The Morgans were among thousands of NSW students to return to the state's 2200 public schools full-time for face to face learning from Monday, after a fortnight of attending at least one day a week and more than two months after Premier Gladys Berejiklian asked families to keep children at home if possible.
Mrs Morgan said the family "could not wait" for classes to resume.
She and her husband have been juggling working from home with helping their children with their studies.
"It's fun for the kids - they need a bit of structure and routine and this is their safe place, they're very nurturing," she said.
"Lachlan is an independent little worker but the girls struggled. They would try to jump into his Zooms!
"Sophia said to us 'This is boring, all you do is work' and 'You're not [my teacher] Mrs Budden' - she's quite honest!
"Our hats go off to all the teachers."
Principal Lisa Monaghan said teachers were "excited" to welcome the 278 students back and "see them achieve their learning goals".
The school had between 28 and 33 students attend each day last week and just six on one day in the lead up to the Easter school holidays.
"Our kids are coming home," Ms Monaghan said.
"It's beautiful. We all got into the teaching profession because one of the key components is building relationships with students and engaging with them. It's harder to do that virtually, but we did our best.
"Being able to joke around with them and see them academically succeed and build relationships is what we want to go forward with.
"It's been lonely here - we're used to giggling, laughing, funny stories, celebrations of success."
A Department of Education spokesperson said 86 per cent of NSW students were onsite on Monday learning at school.
"This is a substantial increase on last week when just over a third of students attended school," the spokesperson said.
"On a normal school day, NSW public school attendance averages around 92 per cent.
"Today 88 per cent of primary students and 84 per cent of secondary students were inside the school gates."
Families were told students must return unless they have a medical certificate that states they are unable to be at school due to an ongoing medical condition, or are currently unwell.
Ms Monaghan said the school had used students' surnames to arrange staggered drop off and pick up times at its three gates on Beach Road, Hutchison Street and Burns Street, where cones and flags were erected to show where parents could pull up in cars.
Visitors are not allowed inside and so families shared hugs and kisses at the gates, before students were welcomed in by teachers blowing bubbles and songs including Surfin' USA playing over the speakers.
"It went beautifully and smoothly," Ms Monaghan said.
"We did not have any big congregations and the timing was perfect.
"All teachers were out and it was all hands on deck, because we wanted everybody to feel welcome."
She praised the efforts of her staff for going "above and beyond" to make the transition to remote learning and back as smooth as possible.
They also drove by students' driveways for a quick chat three Fridays in a row.
"We could sense in the community that kids were getting quite low and parents were getting a bit stressed so we tried to ease that," she said.
Teachers handed out Easter eggs, organised a drive-by Easter hat parade and distributed lollipops.
"The parents really responded to that and knew we were there for them."
Ms Monaghan said COVID-19 would be remembered by today's students as her generation remembered the 1989 earthquake.
"Things will change, but it will change as a society," she said.
"Whereas in the past it was a common greeting to cuddle our friends, we will learn to distance ourselves.
"The big thing as a community is not to be disengaged. Knowing we still have each other's backs and support is imperative through this experience."
She said while teachers and parents would need to practice social distancing, children were exempt.
She said the school was reinforcing the importance of good hygiene, cleaners were targeting frequently used areas and there was hand sanitiser and anti-bacterial wipes in every room.
Lachlan Morgan said he was happy to be back.
"I liked doing Zoom classes and I got more breaks at home to play PS4 and play on my phone, but I missed playing games with my friends, like handball and soccer."
The twins said they'd missed their teachers and friends and it was "great" to return to "have fun" at school and its fairy garden.
