It was a special day for a group of Auckland school kids this week as they became "foundation students" at the country's newest school.
Matua Ngaru School, in Auckland's fast-growing north-west, has finally flung open its doors after more than a year in the making.
Seven Sharp reporter Carolyn Robinson was invited to five-year-old Sophie Carr's house as she got ready for day one.
"Whoa, it’s my first day of school!" Sophie Carr said.
"I gotta get ready! Zoe's already ready!"
Sophie and her big sister Zoe are just two of Matua Ngaru's 156 new pupils.
"Well, it's really nervous and I was not expecting you to, like, interview me," she said.
Diana Wilkes, Matua Ngaru School's foundation principal, was also feeling the excitement as she got ready for the big day, saying, "Excited is an understatement. It's an amazing opportunity".
"I feel really blessed to be a part of all of this. It's been a long journey for me. I was appointed in 2017 and had all of last year to ideate and plan so, yeah, super excited."
Meanwhile, for the school just up the road, it's been 100 years in the making.
Huapai District School's foundation students started their first day of school in 1919.
The school's principal, John Petrie, said, "The school was due to open on April the 1st, and all the children and the families thought it was a joke, so April 1st, principal's here and no one turns up".
While Matua Ngaru is getting ready to start making history, Huapai is reflecting on its own.
"We’ve got kids whose parents’ parents came to this school. I’ve had grandparents stop me and say, 'I went to that classroom,'" Mr Petrie said.
"To be a foundation student is a rare gift – it's huge."
And finally, yesterday, the big day arrived - which Sophie spent packing her own bag, trying to catch a moth and testing out the school's water fountain.
"Today, I'm just feeling really happy and really proud - trying not to cry, yeah," Ms Wilkes said.
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