The demands of homeschooling had hopefully led to a renewed appreciation of the role of teachers in the lives of young people, the director of the Hunter's Catholic schools said.
About 95 per cent of the region's 20,000 Catholic school students have been homeschooled over the past six weeks.
Gerard Mowbray said he expected most parents and their children would be keen to transition back to school life on the proviso it was safe.
"Parents have been doing an absolutely incredible job but, for most of them, their resources are limited," he said.
"Hopefully this period will lead to a newfound appreciation of the work teachers do. Education isn't just about learning stuff, it's about developing a pretty significant set of relationships."
Mr Mowbray said the staggered opening of schools not only made sense from a public health perspective but also recognised that students and staff would need time to acclimatise back into the school environment.
"There's a fair bit of wisdom in the Premier's approach," he said.
"I think there would be significant problems if they just told everyone to come back at once."
Along with the region's government's schools, non-government school students will gradually return to their physical learning environments from May 11.
Catholic school principals are meeting this week to finalise the details of how schools will reopen.
Mr Mowbray said it was yet to be determined how many days students would initially return to school for.
"This is not just a case of picking up where we left off," he said.
"Schools are gradually reopening in the context of some very stringent health requirements that are in place for everyone's safety."
Weeks three to five of term two are likely to see a increased transition from homeschooling to face-to-face learning.
Face-to-face teaching of HSC classes will be a priority from May 11.
"Staged implementation of face-to-face learning for K to 11, as per the premier's request will also occur from May 11," Mr Mowbray said.
"Should modelling be positive we would anticipate an increase of face-to-face learning from weeks 6 to 10."
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