If you’ve ever driven a car whose fuel gauge has been at red alert level for several miles, you’ll know the feeling: an expanding queasiness as you strain your eyes ahead, in hope that a petrol station will suddenly hove into view.

Thousands of people who work in education are on a similar journey right now. The end of this turbulent year is just about in sight, but they’re running on fumes. As we documented in Tes Scotland last week, teacher burnout was already a huge concern in early 2020 - then along came Covid.

Aside from all the other damage it has wreaked, the pandemic has played havoc with the very rhythm of the school year. At this point in the calendar, with the weather balmy and the nights long, teachers are attuned to looking ahead: new timetables, emotional send-offs for P7s and S6s, stepping up preparations to welcome new P1s and S1s.

This school year, however, does not feel like it wants to wind down and give way to the priorities of the new year. Instead, in some ways, it is reaching a crescendo: the number of Covid cases among children are rising and, in secondaries, concern is growing about what the endgame is with qualifications. It’s no wonder that, instead of feeling a sense of completion and progression at this point of the year, there’s a widespread sense of being caught in a neverending loop.

Kudos, then, to schools, who - despite everything else they are contending with - have read the room and seen the sense of excitement cascading around the country about Scotland’s first involvement in a major men’s football tournament in 23 years. It’s been refreshing to see a smile on teachers’ faces as they plug into a communal experience, to witness the sort of shared excitement that has been all too rare in a time when school trips, sporting events, arts festivals and even a visit to the grimy local multiplex have been ruled out by Covid.

Euro 2020 has also helped show the lasting bond there can be between pupils and schools long after those six or seven years that they share. When we asked schools with former pupils in the Scotland squad for the tournament if they would like to share a good luck message, the deep pride in what their old boy had gone on to achieve was clear to see.

It’s more important than ever just now of the lasting influence of teachers. As Mark Priestley, professor of education at the University of Stirling, says in our big interview this week, teachers have “done a heroic job” during Covid. This has, of course, involved a lot of firefighting, in a year when the goalposts have shifted so many times, whether on exams, masks, social distancing or myriad other things.

But, as in any year, the huge impact teachers can have on young lives may not become entirely apparent for some time. Then, a teacher could be perusing a supermarket’s fruit and veg section when they bump into an old pupil, or watching a Scotland player being interviewed as they recall a formative experience at school 20 years previously - and find themselves being thanked profusely, sometimes for things that didn’t seem such a big deal at the time. Many will never get the chance, but there are countless grown-ups who would take the opportunity to thank a teacher.

Years in the future, memories of what teachers did during the pandemic will make that long-lasting bond even more powerful. So, as the summer comes into view, anyone working in education should nudge the accelerator as gently as they can - perhaps drawing on a little extra energy from (fingers crossed) the reflected success of the Scotland team - and never lose sight that all their efforts of this past year may yield rewards for decades to come.

@Henry_Hepburn

This article originally appeared in the 18 June 2021 issue under the headline “Teachers have transformed lives during Covid - just you wait”