The start of term three will come as a welcome relief for parents, but not so much for schools that are still struggling with staff shortages as a result of illness.
During what's already one of the worst winters on record for absentees, there are growing calls for the Ministry of Education to once again offer support to students most affected.
This time next week students will be swapping popcorn for pop quizzes.
For many, term three marks the beginning of preliminary exams, but holding those could be challenging.
"We've still got a crisis in terms of ability to get relievers, the ability to find new staff, so when either staff are sick or leave it's almost impossible to replace them," NZ Secondary Principals' Association president Vaughan Couillaut said.
The end of the last term saw some schools shut their gates and return to online learning because of the combination of COVID-19 and flu, and there are fears that could affect students' performance come exam time.
"Some kids have been quite substantially impacted by the time they've had periods of isolation or COVID themselves, so it's really understandable that students would be feeling anxious heading into terms three which is the pointy end of the year," senior clinical psychologist Dr Kirsty Ross said.
And it's prompted calls for the Ministry of Education and NZQA to offer a solution.
"We're looking to those organisations to come up with a solution to address the loss of learning time," Couillaut said.
In a statement to Newshub, NZQA said it's consulting the Ministry of Education, school leaders and sector representatives.
It said the impact of COVID-19 this year is different from previous years, and they're considering what measures are appropriate in 2022.
Coulliaut said that could include derived grades or reducing the number of credits needed.
The Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said there's one way to lessen the disruption in the classroom.
"Consider asking all students and staff to use masks for that first four weeks and masks are being provided to support that," Dr Bloomfield said.
Proving the effects of COVID on education are still very much being felt.
