The break was the point of the break. The return does not have to feel like the whole routine restarting at once, on one morning, cold.
Bedtime, wake time, and the shape of the morning are worth easing back into two or three days before school actually resumes, rather than switching overnight from holiday pace to term pace on the first morning back. The first day is hard enough without also being the first day of the earlier bedtime.
If your child has used a visual schedule for the school day before, look at it together again before the first morning back — even a quick walkthrough resets the memory of the sequence. A schedule set aside for weeks does not come back automatically.
An elaborate send-off, extra excitement, or a long conversation about how big a deal today is can raise the stakes past where a child can carry them calmly. Naming it plainly — "today you go back, same as before the break" — usually lands better than treating it as a milestone.
If the school offers that option, it is worth asking for, particularly after a long break. Not every school can, and a full day is manageable for most children with the preparation above.
It is common, and naming their own feeling out loud is not the same as the return actually going badly. Acknowledge it — "I know going back feels hard" — rather than trying to talk them out of the feeling.
That is a larger conversation than a routine restart, and worth a direct word with the teacher in advance so the school knows what your child is carrying into the term.
Part of our guide to Visual supports & routines.