Packed lunches, neatly ironed uniforms and labelled stationery are back on the menu as school's usher in a new year of education – including Tauranga's latest 'new kid” on the school block.

New school ACG Tauranga has opened for its first year – and among its eager new young faces is Ohauiti's Brin Watson.

Brin Watson during the school's first week. Photo by Chris Callinan.

Brin is one of 744,100 students from Years 1-13 nationwide, who this week strapped their school bags on, immersing themselves back into the rigours of school.

'He was super excited, up early and ready to go. He couldn't wait to get into school,” says Brin's mother Laine Spencer Watson.

Situated on the corner of Keenan Rd and Pyes Pa Rd on SH36 and operated by the Academic Colleges Group, ACG Tauranga is the city's only comprehensive Year 1-13 independent school and offers co-ed and secular education.

Brin's parents Kerry Watson and Laine say upon hearing the school would open in 2015 it was an easy decision to send the nine-year-old despite other tried and true options in the city.

'We wanted to provide the opportunity for him to have a little bit more one-on-one time and have a really individualistic plan to learn and be creative,” says Kerry.

'Even at his level in the primary school they have specialist science, music, and language teachers. There is a variety of things that you get that you possibly don't get at other schools.”

Adding to the couple's interest of having their son start at the school from a young age is the school's ability to totally base its curriculum on the Cambridge International Curriculum, starting from primary levels – a Tauranga first.

'Right from the get go we were interested in what it could provide for Brin, given he was a Year 6 student with a variety interests,” says Laine.

'We were pretty excited about ACG coming to Tauranga.”

Year by year, the school will take on an older age group – and by 2019, ACG Tauranga will be open for children from pre-school right through to the last year of college, Year 13.

In the Bay of Plenty there are 4270 Year 1 students enrolled for the school year, and 51,800 Year 1-13 students enrolled.