Whether you are a student at home or still in a classroom or a staff member teaching remotely or opening a school building on Good Friday, we are working in unprecedented times.

I write this as most students enjoy the final few days of their Easter holidays and staff prepare for a new, but very different, school term.

The two-week break has seen some of our schools open, including on the bank holidays around Easter, as we continue to support our key workers in a valued and crucial way.

Prior to the holidays, I know how emotionally draining it was for everyone connected with schools – staff, students and parents alike.

But I also know that our staff will return on Monday, recharged and ready to offer online learning in a refreshed and energetic way.

Schools, and school staff, have now got the measure of what online learning looks like and how it can be adapted to their own virtual classrooms.

They will be greeted by students who have shown remarkable resilience from day one of this crisis.

We have all been delighted by the feedback we have received about young people adapting and producing some fantastic work.

Unity Schools Partnership prides itself on offering support and encouraging schools to work together and that has been clear during the last few weeks.

We have shared what works, what challenges need to be overcome and how we can do so. For instance, we know there are a small number of students that don’t have access to a learning device and we are doing all we can to address that.

Some of the focus for our secondary school teachers over the next few weeks will be to pull together the necessary information for various examination boards to ensure students get the grades their hard work deserves. I have every confidence that will happen.

When will the schools reopen? That is a question we are all asking and we know as much as anyone else.

We are ready to reopen and ready to get back into a more typical routine, but only when the Government says it is safe to do so.

For now, I will continue to marvel at what is happening online and in those schools that remain open for the few. We have seen schools join together to learn sign language and songs, create virtual assemblies or encourage sport and exercise for all.

Our students are producing some fantastic and creative work and also doing all they can to support others at this time. Designing rainbow-themed posters for emergency services or writing letters to the elderly are two such examples.

They have been a credit to their schools and families during these difficult times.