At The Ponds High School, every single student is a new student.
A Year 7 cohort of about 200 braved Sydney's wild weather on Wednesday morning as they filed through the gates at their brand new school, which might have felt like it had always been waiting for them.
But principal Jenny Weal has spent months working hard to ensure the term started without a hitch, well before the finishing touches were applied. She was still co-ordinating class times, enrolment forms and calming parents right until the first bell rang.
"You learn a lot about building," Ms Weal said. "Things that you're not prepared for in the education world."
Most students and teachers come to a school that already has an identity of its own - a crest, a motto and a set of colours. But Ms Weal had the opportunity to decide those things from scratch, and she seized it. She examined every uniform in the local area.
"I looked at the colour scheme and went, I need something that's different," Ms Weal said.
"I said I would like black and white, because predominantly they're blue here, and I said I'd like a swash of colour."
The striking combination of black, white and red won over a parent committee and was selected as the new school uniform colours. Ms Weal also commissioned a logo for the school, with a eucalyptus leaf design.
Premier Mike Baird and state Education Minister Adrian Piccoli visited for a tour on Wednesday morning just as first period started. The campus also incorporates a new primary school, Riverbank Public, and a new special needs school, costing a total $70 million.
A group of Year 7 students in a language class, their first class of the day, nervously greeted the Premier and the minister in Japanese, and bowed one by one.
The kindergartners nearby didn't seem bothered by the visiting dignitaries, perhaps because there was so much else to distract their attention - rolling pins and playdough on the table and a huge touchscreen on the wall. There are no blackboards or whiteboards to be found.
"What you're seeing here in the north-west is planning and funding coming together as it should," Mr Baird said.
Ms Weal isn't worried by recent reports about the rising costs of public education.
"I listen to the figures but then I listen to the comparison of a private school and ... there's not really any comparison," she said.
"Government obviously provides support for students' families who don't have enough resources."
Currently Year 7 has the school to themselves, but numbers are expected to eventually reach 1200 students.
