But for Tomahawk School principal Richard Aitken, the first of many teacher-only days yesterday was already beginning to drag.
When the Otago Daily Times called in just before lunch, he had already caught up on his emails and his paperwork.
"I'm not quite sure what to do next. When 3pm rolls around, the golf clubs might get an outing."
Tomahawk School, at Ocean Grove, is one of two Dunedin schools which started the year with no pupils.
The other is Waldronville, on the Brighton coast, which Minister of Education Anne Tolley has announced will close at the end of this term.
Tomahawk School has applied to the minister for permission to close but the paperwork has not been completed yet.
In the meantime, both schools are technically open for business, with staff, including teachers, support staff and cleaners, being paid.
Waldronville's board of trustees applied to the Ministry of Education last year to close after almost 60 years, because of falling rolls.
Mrs Tolley's letter confirming the closure arrived last month, board chairman Keith Brandish said.
He said he had mixed feelings about the decision.
Mr Aitken said he did not expect 150-year-old Tomahawk School to shut its doors until at least the middle of this year.
He has enrolled for university papers, with the full support of the board of trustees which employs him.
"There is nothing to say I can't use this time for professional development.
But if the board asked me to go and teach somewhere else, of course I would do that."
When schools closed, staff were offered redundancy or redeployment, Mr Aitken said.
Both were unsettling prospects.
"At the end of the day, I don't have a job to go to. You can laugh or cry about it, but I'm not the crying type."
