Back to school in Boston by the numbers

(Globe Staff/Mark Wilson)

Students streamed back to the Patrick Gavin School this morning in South Boston.

By Globe Staff

Alarm clocks beeped early this morning and brought an abrupt end to the summers of more than 49,400 children and teenagers in Boston. They grabbed backpacks stuffed with new notebooks and lumbered to bus stops or began the slow walk to class.

It is the first day of school in the city for students in grades 1 through 12. Boston has 143 public schools, which are staffed today by roughly 5,000 teachers, including 329 new hires ready to greet children in classrooms.

For some 4,100 6-year-olds, it was the first day of first grade. For 4,300 12th graders, today marked the beginning of the end, with graduation finally in sight. The final wave of new students is slated to start on Monday when roughly 6,300 bright-eyed kindergartners start class.

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