Around 37 kindergarten children took their first steps into big school at Orange Anglican Grammar School (OAGS). For most, the first-day jitters weren't apparent to classroom teachers.

Apart from a handful of students, most of the children had completed pre-school at OAGS so the transition was relatively smooth, headmaster Rev Louis Stringer explained.

Rev Stringer added 2021 had seen "record numbers" for pre-school at OAGS. Even before this school year had begun, building expansion plans were being put into play for 2022 to accommodate those children when they moved into kindy.

"We're absolutely full in pre-school... We've got 60 students entering into pre-school and we've got a waiting list," he said.

"To start off the year with all our places full is fantastic."

The headmaster added that it was encouraging to see that among the many pupils to join OAGS overall this term, there were many from families new to Orange.

In total, OAGS will have a student population of 488 in 2021.

"We've grown by over 10 per cent in the past three years," Rev Stringer said, contributing that increase to Orange's overall population growth and also the growing reputation of the school.

At public schools across town, around 600 students were starting kindergarten for the first time, according to 2020 data provided by the NSW Department of Education.

While more than 400 students would be collectively starting year 7 at public secondary schools in Orange.

The data from last year's enrolments further suggested that across Orange's network of public schools there were 6000 students - of them 200 would be completing their HSC in 2021.