Gathered in the playground waiting for the bell to ring, we parents stand socially distanced and with our masks on. It is the first day back for pupils in the early years of primary in Scotland and I am dropping off my own P2 daughter after almost seven weeks of remote learning (not that I’m counting).

Casting an eye around the waiting parents really brings home the sheer range of challenges that families have faced during this time, and perhaps explains why the mood is buoyant. The overriding feeling this morning appears to be one of relief.

My daughter attends a small rural primary with around 70 pupils, but gathered on the tarmac waiting for the bell are parents who will have had very different experiences since we last gathered here in December. Some are doctors and nurses, whom I know have struggled to juggle homeschooling with jobs that have been emotionally and mentally draining.

Background: Youngest pupils to return to school buildings on Monday

News: Rules at school gates ‘critical’ when pupils return

Opinion: Why lockdown has made some children ‘visibly happier’

Research: Pupils in P1 and S1 ‘among the worst hit by Covid lockdown’

When the NHS came under huge pressure this winter, they faced running out of the resources and equipment they needed to treat their patients. Then, on their days off, they had to shake all that off and turn their minds to phonics and early numeracy.

Parents happy to see their children back in school

In our council area, it is only if both parents are classed as key workers that the hub school is an option.

Other parents with children in my daughter’s P1-2 composite class have large families, sometimes covering the full age range from lower primary to upper secondary. One mum had a baby a few months ago and has also been home-educating three primary-aged children.

There are also, of course, only children - with no siblings to help entertain them, their mums and dads will have been parents as well as playmate, cook, cleaner and teacher.

Then there are those parents who have been open about the impact the pandemic has had on them and their mental health. They have been home educating their children whilst wrestling their own demons.  

There have been some signs that parents have reservations about the return to school - one mum asked on Facebook how the key worker and other children were going to be kept apart - but most seem to concur with the mum who says to me: “Today is a good day.”

And what about my family? We got into a routine during lockdown last spring that worked for us, and we reverted to it when online learning started again last month. My husband and I have shared the responsibility for looking after our two children and getting them through their learning, while continuing to work from home. We have a decent amount of indoor space and a garden. We are lucky.

Of course, there have been tears and tantrums - usually the children (but not always), and usually prefaced with a plaintive cry of “That’s not how Mr/Mrs [insert name of teacher here] does it!” There was also one disastrous attempt at papier-mâché but that was back in the spring; we’re pros now (or, more truthfully, we know our limits).

The highlight for me has been getting to support my daughter as she learns to read and write. Seeing her progress has been hugely rewarding and there’s a part of me that would like to see this through, and I will, but more likely now as an enthusiastic supporter, not a key player.

And, frankly, back on the sidelines is probably where my daughter wants me. She is keen to get back to school and to be with her friends and to leave this amateur educator behind. Instinctively, she seems to know she’s better off with the organ grinder, not the monkey. So, she has been counting down the “sleeps” left until this morning since first minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed last week that early primary pupils would be going back full time and we broke the good news.

Even hearing that her usual teacher will be shielding until mid-March did not dampen her spirits, and this morning she strides into school happy and full of confidence. I’m less gung-ho but I’m feeling reasonably comfortable about the return - in our health board area, the latest figures show that the coronavirus prevalence is relatively low and there were just 46 cases in the past week (as compared with 1,501 in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde). My daughter’s class also has fewer than 20 pupils in it.

Others are not in this fortunate position, which is why I agree with the teaching unions that the return should have been part-time to allow for smaller class sizes. This would also have given the children who need it time to adapt.

We know that remote learning has suited some children with additional support needs (ASN) but to be at home while a pandemic sweeps around the globe will have suited a lot of other children as well - children who perhaps have dwelled more than my daughter appears to have done on the bits and pieces of stress-inducing news they will inevitably have picked up.

We know home is not the best environment for some children - and this has been one of the key arguments for getting children back to school - but for others home is the sanctuary it should be, and they may be reluctant to be removed from it.

Out of my daughter’s P1-2 class, however, only one child hesitates to join the line that forms when the bell rings, but she is quickly brought round by having bestowed upon her the honour of holding the door open as the rest of the class files through.

My daughter disappears inside - she is back to school again, for the time being at least.