Despite any plans we might make, there is very little real possibility of schools returning to normal any time soon. And, while we must all want the young people in our care to return to their education as soon as possible, we need to be careful about any calls for change as a result of this lockdown.

I’m not saying we don’t need to change schooling: I’m not really sure about that just yet. It’s just that we need to be very wary of making decisions at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons.

That we were caught unawares, never having experienced anything like this before, is undeniable. Our desperate attempts to implement home learning, with edtech packages of which many of us had no real experience, are causing teachers and parents more stress than they should. There’ll be tech experts in schools up and down the country thinking, “I told you so.” These things have been about for years: we’ve just never really thought we needed them - then we did.

But we’re perhaps missing the point: school and learning need to be separated. Without that big building to go to, it appears that our system falls apart. Any new ideas need to be able to bridge that gap.

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As the exam season is cancelled this year, we should not pounce upon any hobby horse about how assessment needs to change. Exams were always, and probably always will be, an end-point to school, in some form or other.

Coping with the coronavirus crisis

But how we teach our young people to be independent, resilient learners has really been called into question. What we should expect is that when the safety net of school is no longer there for them, they can cope as - in the language of Curriculum for Excellence - successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. I’ll leave you to decide whether we’re there yet.

When we do, eventually, thankfully, mercifully, come out of this - and we will - how will we really be able to assess what happened and what should happen next? How we learn independently, how our brains cope with stress, how learning actually happens, might be questions we should focus on. You never know, we may never experience anything like this again in our lifetime. But we might. And it would be unforgivable if educators failed to learn from that.

It’s just my opinion, but looking back on this, knowing that they survived one of the most traumatic disasters of their lifetimes, might be education enough for young people. We hope with all our hearts that few suffer tragedies as a result, but I can safely say that they are already experiencing things way beyond the importance of exams.

Our first day back, then, should be a celebration of that ability to cope with challenges none of their teachers could have contemplated at such a young age. And that just might give us hope.

Kenny Pieper is a secondary teacher and author based in Scotland. He tweets @kennypieper