Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Tuesday that a "transition phase" would begin on May 11, allowing students to receive one face-to-face day at school per week. Days may be scaled up throughout term 2 with the hopes of returning to normality by term 3.

The premier said the system would be engineered to help families with multiple children be at school on the same days.

"For some schools, you might have house colours, it might mean a house colour a day goes back, which means siblings are often in the same house colour. Or it could be alphabetical, which means all siblings would be on campus the same day," Ms Berejiklian said.

President of the NSW Teachers Federation, Angelo Gavrielatos, has questioned the system, saying it may prove needlessly complex.

"It's clear that at the right time when restrictions have eased that a staggered return [to schools] will be required," Mr Gavrielatos said.

"But the premier's announcement fails to comprehend the massive timetabling and organisational demand now on the schools to manage a return [where] up to 25 per cent of students will be at school every day."

Mr Gavrielatos instead is advocating for a one-year group return with kindergartens and senior students to be given priority.

"As restrictions ease, we could go up to two grades and so forth," he said. "At the right time, when restrictions ease a staggered return would be required."

The final decision on how to manage the classroom roster will be left to individual schools but the premier has further reminded "no child will be turned away" if parents are unable to keep them at home.

That was welcomed by Tumut parent, Desiree Piper. Herself and her husband classed as essential workers, Ms Piper's children - in years 6, 3, and 1 - have had to continue to attend their school. Ms Piper worries that some parents may try to game the system.

"I imagine there would be some parents who would jump at the chance to get their kids back to school," Ms Piper said.

"We haven't had too many [COVID-19] cases in our region, but I don't want to get complacent."

By the end of last term, across the state only up to six per cent of students were physically attending school, which Ms Piper said did a lot to keep families like hers safe.

"In the last two weeks, my kids were the only ones on their bus. How do you socially distance on a bus or at the bus stop? The driver, everyone is vulnerable," she said.

To cope with the increased activity at schools, the NSW government will provide additional cleaning of high-traffic 'touchpoints'. Teachers will also be given priority testing if they develop COVID-19 symptoms.