Students can expect schools to be different across New Zealand under level 2

It's back to school tomorrow for students across the country.

But under level 2 students can expect school to be a little different - and there are concerns about how we all deal with the anxiety of the first day back.

Get out the backpacks and dig out those books. For seven weeks kids have been home under lockdown.

Now, from early childhood centres right through to high schools, the countdown is on to fully open up.

Wellington College is stocked up, spaced out and ready to welcome back around 1800 students tomorrow morning.

"We've got some new routines in place with kids sanitising their hands as they come into class and opportunities for surfaces to be cleaned down throughout the day," says Wellington College principal Gregor Fountain.

The Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) is hoping schools around the country will ensure teacher safety too. But for some anxiety is still creeping in.

"We are reassured by Dr Ashley [Bloomfield] that it will be okay, that there are processes in place but it's only human to be worried about it and we are worried about it," vice president Melanie Webber says.

Throughout lockdown some NCEA students have told Newshub studying in at home's taken its toll.

Fountain says well-being's a top priority and plans to ease students back into school-life.

"We are having a 'no new content' week. It's gonna be focused on catch-up," he says.

That slow start is particularly important for students with higher needs.

"For all kids, it's gonna be a little difficult and for our kids more so," Autism NZ CEO Dane Dougan says.

Autism New Zealand's families have struggled to teach their kids at home without teacher aids. They say extra care is needed to ensure returning to school's not too big a shock to the system.

"Hopefully schools are putting things in place like making sure we sit down and talk about what this is going to look like," Dougan says.

But there are concerns physically getting to school could be half the battle for some.

Wellington's Metlink says passengers on all of its buses must be distanced and seated, meaning buses can carry just 40 percent of their usual load.

"The school buses in Wellington are part of the wider Metlink network and they simply don't have enough buses to put on a whole lot of extra buses," Fountain says.

So it will be plan b for some. And possibly an emotional challenge for our smallest learners parting from their parents for the first time in weeks.