Though schools around the globe have different start dates, calendars and traditions, the first day of a new term is an exciting time filled with the prospects of gaining more knowledge, making new friends and building community. Here: Palestinian schoolchildren play on the first day of a new school year, at a United Nations-run school in Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip August 23, 2017. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)





Students prepare for the first day of school school at the Lycee du Cent Cinquantatenaire, in Port-au-Prince, on September 4, 2017. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)





Children enjoy first day of the school at Mahila Sangh School, Vile Parle, on June 15, 2017 in Mumbai, India. Attired in brand-new uniforms, the children turned up at their respective schools after a long summer vacation. (Photo by Satish Bate/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)





Schoolchildren attend their first lesson on Knowledge Day in the town of Turov, Zhytkavichy District, Gomel Region, Belarus on September 1, 2017. Knowledge Day marks the beginning of a new school year in Belarus and is celebrated on September 1. (Photo by Viktor Drachev/TASS via Getty Images)





A displaced child from the Islamic State (IS) group's Syrian stronghold of Raqa, walks to attend the first day of the new school year at a camp for internally displaced people in Ain Issa on August 22, 2017. (Photo by Delil Souleiman/AFP Photo)





Children attend a ceremony on their first day of school at Shimizu elementary school in Fukushima, northern Japan April 6, 2011. Over 70 schools began their regular classes on Wednesday in the city of Fukushima, after the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country on March 11. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)





Pupils enter their classroom in a primary school on the first day of the new school year on September 4, 2017, in Quimper, western France. (Photo by Fred Tanneau/AFP Photo)





Young Vietnamese children are dressed up and ready to perform for parents and local officials on the first day of the school year at the private Minh Hai Nursery School in Hanoi on August 28, 1997. Vietnam announced this week that it would open up the education sector to private management and funding, including foreign investment. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)





First grade students of Finetown Primary School are seen during the first day of the school year in Johannesburg, South Africa on January 14, 2015. (Photo by Ihsan Haffejee/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)





School girls arrive at Glenalmond College for the first day of term on September 5, 2017 in Glenalmond, Scotland. For the first time in one hundred and seventy years, girls will be boarding in the Gothic Front Quad of Glenalmond which has been until now a purely male preserve. Girls have boarded at the school since 1991 but until today accommodated in purpose-built boarding houses away from the historic Quad. The independent boarding school founded by William Gladstone and James Hope Scott is based on the architecture of Oxford University. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)





Music students sing the Ukrainian national anthem at the Special Music School Lysenko of Kiev as the first of september traditionally marks the start of the school year, on September 01, 2017 in Kiev, Ukraine. Four hundred and twenty three talented music students between the ages 5 to 18 study singing and music during eleven years at the Special Music School Lysenko of Kiev. Students and their relatives attend a concert, dressed up in traditional garnments, and bring flowers for the teachers. Many of the students were scouted by teachers during contests. Only the most talented singers and musicians are admitted in the prestigious music school. The school, administrated by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, has been created in times of the former Soviet Union. Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists have agreed on August 25 on a new cease-fire for the start of the school year. (Photo by Pierre Crom/Getty Images)





Teacher Margaret Upp and the rest of the teaching staff greet students on the first day of classes at the newly opened Brambleton Middle School on Thursday, August 24, 2017 in Ashburn, Virginia. Thursday marks the start of the school year for Loudoun County Public Schools. (Photo by Pete Marovich For The Washington Post via Getty Images)





A teacher guides her pupils to the classroom on the first day of classes in Honduras, at the John F. Kennedy School in Tegucigalpa on February 8, 2010. (Photo by Orlando Sierra/AFP Photo)





Caroline Mogomela hugs Yesenia Villada on her first day of school at St. Patrick Secondary School in Toronto, September 2, 2014. Mogomela came from Botswana in July and will be starting Grade 9. She participated in the NOW Program (Newcomer Orientation Week) that helps newcomer students like her get to know the Ontario education system and meet other newcomer students. Villada immigrated from Colombia when she was 15 and is was a peer leader in the NOW program. (Photo by Marta Iwanek/Toronto Star via Getty Images)