Some 300 million students and teachers are returning to schools across China, as a staggered spring semester gets underway across the country.

The new school term is the first semester after China downgraded its management of COVID-19 from Class A to Class B on Jan 8. Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan on Feb 6 urged efforts to optimize school management in accordance with the country's adjusted COVID-19 response and fully restore normality to school life.

On Monday, over 1 million primary and middle school students in Beijing returned to school.

At Beijing No 13 Middle School, Qin Sheng, vice-president of the school, announced that there would be a coming-of-age ceremony for the high school's seniors.

"The ceremony was originally planned for the last fall semester, but was delayed due to the epidemic. Now, we've been able to invite the students' parents to enjoy the ceremony too," said Qin.

In the past three years, due to safety concerns and the country's fight against the epidemic, students were frequently restricted to their homes and educated through the schools' online guided study.

Ma Luo, director of the student sports center at Guangqumen Middle School in Beijing's Dongcheng district, said physical education classes this term would focus on helping students "gradually restore their physical strength with exercises and ball games at first instead of running".

With downgraded epidemic control measures, schools no longer require negative nucleic acid test results before entering the campus.

"In accordance with the new guidelines, we conducted a health survey of teachers and students prior to the start of the new term," said Duan Chunlan, a school doctor at the Qingnian Lake Primary School in Beijing's Xicheng district.

Students are required to report their body temperature before returning to school, according to the requirements of the education authorities. If students experience symptoms such as fever, they are required to report them truthfully and delay their return to school while confirming their COVID-19 infection status.

Different regions of the country are beginning the spring semester at different times. Schools in the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong started the new term as early as Feb 6, while Northeast China's Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces are scheduled to start the new term later this month to suit local weather conditions.

Schools in North China's Hebei province and Central China's Henan province started the new term on Feb 7.

Li Baozhi, principal of Hengshui No 4 Middle School in Hebei, encouraged students to approach the first day of classes with a relaxed and stress-free attitude.

"It is normal to feel a little uncomfortable in the classroom," Li said.

The principal noted that after an extended period of home study amid the epidemic, students may be grappling with various psychological pressures due to a lack of vital interpersonal communication. To address this, the school has dedicated the first day of the new term to a lesson on mental wellness, aimed at fostering a supportive and inclusive learning environment.

The Shanghai Experimental School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences distributed seeds to each student on the first day of the new term. Principal Xia encouraged students to "sow hope" as they plant the seeds and tend to the growth of the young saplings.

Li Mingxin, principal of the Qingnian Lake Primary School in Beijing, informed students that the school would organize a series of activities such as kite flying, hiking and the outdoor sports of cuju, which is the ancient form of modern-day football.

Xinhua