Imagine being in your classroom, aged seven, with your teacher being beamed in from her home by video-link.

At Heathfield Primary in Darlington that’s exactly what’s happening.

Mrs Craghill is teaching her class of seven- and eight-year-olds by video-link. Someone in her household tested positive for the virus, so she is having to self-isolate – but her lessons continue.

Darlington, unlike some other towns in north-east England, has a relatively low transmission rate of coronavirus – but even here, schools are having to be resourceful and vigilant to ensure children can at last pick up their education after months of disruption.

Snap research by the BBC late last week showed hundreds of pupils were having to self isolate when small numbers of their classmates, in schools across England, showed symptoms of the virus.

This is of course a tiny proportion out of the millions of pupils in England’s 27,000 schools – but it just shows how vigilant school communities have to be in order to contain the virus.

For Mrs Craghill, this is not the way she wanted to start the school year, but at least the video-link ensures she can have some contact with pupils who have been out of school for so long.

“It’s been really beneficial for myself and the children to be able to have some connection each day and just to connect with maths and English and to see their faces really and for them to see me.” Source