Schools may feel like a “strange place” to pupils when they return in August, a leading psychiatrist has said.

Dr Justin Williams, vice-chair of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, said going to school could seem very different.

Although pupils in Scotland are to return in August without having to apply social distancing - if Covid-19 continues to be suppressed - teachers are to remain 2m apart where possible and will need to wear a mask if they are face-to-face with pupils for more than 15 minutes.

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Dr Williams told the PA news agency: “It’s not just about going back to a routine, it’s about going back to a routine with a lot of extra rules that are likely to be necessary to minimise risk, and that’s going to be challenging for a lot of young people.”

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He also said that many children find masks upsetting because they can make it hard to read people’s facial expressions.

The Scottish government aims to have children back in school full-time from 11 August and hopes to make a final decision by 30 July, with “blended” in-class and at-home learning remaining a contingency plan if Covid-19 is not sufficiently suppressed.

Dr Williams said: “Some [children] will be looking forward to going back and seeing their friends, and some are really not looking forward to going back and have loved being away from school, while some hated being away from school - so there is a huge range of views.

“For some children, such as those going into P1 or S1, they are starting at a new school and will have anxiety about that along with worry about Covid.”

He said being able to spend time with other children without social distancing - as is now allowed for under-12s - has helped to restore some sense of normality ahead of the return to school.

Dr Williams said parents should be given as much information as possible to help prepare their children for what to expect when they go back to the classroom.

He also suggested parents could create some sort of structure to the day in the last couple of weeks of the holiday to prepare children for the routine of being at school.