Back to school: What's the best thing about returning?

Schools in England and Wales are reopening this week, while many more children in Northern Ireland are going back to lessons too.

It means lots of you are returning to the classroom after several months of learning at home during lockdown - joining pupils in Scotland, where schools reopened several weeks ago, and years 7, 12 and 14 in Northern Ireland who returned last week.

England's education secretary Gavin Williamson has written an open letter to parents preparing to send their children back to school.

"Education is a birthright, so let's make sure we get all children back - back to learning, back to playing and back to being kids again," he said.

"If a child is not in school, they stand to lose far more than just a few months of learning. It could well put a huge dent in their future life chances,"

Kids will be returning to socially distanced classrooms

Lockdown learning catch-up

A survey of teachers has found that kids will need to catch-up on some of last year's learning when they start back.

The National Foundation for Educational Research asked 3,000 head teachers how things had gone at the end of the last school year.

Almost all, 98%, said pupils were around three months behind in the curriculum - which is the plan for what people will learn through the year - with a fifth of teachers thinking boys were further behind than girls.

The report also found that teachers at schools in the most deprived areas were three times more likely to say their pupils were more than four months behind.

Some primary school pupils in England returned to their, socially distanced, classrooms at the beginning of June

Returning to a different type of school

Your school might look and feel a bit different because of changes, such as social distancing, to keep pupils as safe as possible.

But it still means being able to see friends, learning in a classroom and playing in the playground during break-time!

So we want to know, what is the best thing about being back?

If you cannot see the list, try here.