England: The English have been welcoming back nursery children, reception (equivalent of between nursery and first year of Scottish Primary), Year 1 (5-7-year-olds) and Year 6 (10-11-year-olds), since the start of the month. And from last week they have been offering face-to-face support for Year 10 (fourth year of a Secondary) and Year 12 (equivalent to the fifth year of Scottish Secondary) to supplement remote learning.

They have been carrying out risk assessments on pupils, promoting rigorous hand-cleaning and hygiene measures, and cutting classes and reducing mixing. Boris Johnson had hoped to get all Primary school children back in class for a month before the summer holidays but the UK Government is now setting a September target for when they hope to get everyone back in class.

READ MORE: Education Secretary John Swinney spells out the Government's schools strategy

Republic of Ireland: Ireland has set an ambitious target of a full reopening of schools for September. The Irish Minister for Education Joe McHugh discounted a phased return or blended learning. The Government worked on findings that maintaining a two-metre social distancing regime would mean that most primary school children would only be able to attend school for one day every week.

They say that a one-metre distance regime would mean that only half of the total number of pupils would be able to attend on any given day.

The plan is that there would be no need for social distancing between pupils but they are being enforced for contact between teachers and pupils, and also between teachers themselves, and parents.

Northern Ireland: Northern Irish politicians are championing one-metre distances. And that will allow “full classes to attend” school. Education Minister Peter Weir has sent this guidance to school principals. And it is his contention that schools will reopen from August 17-24.

France: The French came out of lockdown in mid-March when 40,000 primary schools were reopened as well as some middle schools. It is not compulsory to send children back to school and less wealthy French people who have been hit hardest have been less likely to do so.

The government issued 56 pages of instructions to schools on how to keep their premises clean and their pupils safe. There must be no more than 15 children in a class, no shared toys, and timed arrivals at school. Children over the age of 11 also need to wear masks.

All schools except high schools will fully reopen on 22 June.

Spain: The Spanish had one of the severest lockdowns and confined children to their homes for six weeks. Schools were partially reopened on May 26 to allow for revision classes and state exams. All schools are expected to reopen in September.

Italy: Schools have been shut since March 5 and will not reopen until September. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has heralded remote learning and warned about the risk of contagion in schools.

Germany: With 16 states in Germany there is no uniform policy to the reopening of schools. Schools have partially reopened for young children and those taking exams. There has also been an emphasis on schoolchildren in their final year of Primary before moving to Secondary.

Bavaria, which was one of the hardest hit, has been most cautious of all. All states have imposed strict social distancing and hygiene rules. Students are also self-administering coronavirus tests.

READ MORE: Larry Flanagan: What the teaching union boss thinks about the school situation

Netherlands: The Dutch have been operating half-classes of 15 since mid-May. They also decided not to impose any social distancing for young pupils and allow touching as the rates of the virus for under-12s is so low. They operate a rotating system of Group A and B classes meaning half the pupils are either in class or remote learning at any given time. Children are required to be 1.5m from adults, and adults 1.5m from each other, and teachers physically comfort children if they are hurt or upset.

Belgium: The Belgians opted against social distancing when they reopened selected primary and secondary school classes but they recommended that teachers wear masks if social distancing with the pupils could not be maintained. Pupils were required to stay with their own class throughout the day. Nurseries have now reopened.

Sweden: The Swedes have been held up as an example of how to avoid lockdown. The Scandinavians kept their schools for all children under 16 open throughout the pandemic. Now they are moving away from distance learning and reopening upper secondary schools and universities.

Most students will leave for their summer break and not return until the autumn but summer schools will be able to open their doors to students this summer.

The Swedes had considered that under-16s were not major spreaders of the virus. And they also wanted to ensure that parents in essential jobs could continue working.

Denmark: The Danes were the first lockdown country in Europe to send children from aged 2-12 back in mid-April, and have reported no increase in infections.

The Danes reported that the number of infected children aged from one up to 19 has declined steadily since late April.

Norway: The Norwegians opened up nursery schools in mid-April just a month after lockdown, followed by schools for the youngest pupils, between ages six and 10, the following week.

The reopening of the schools was met with opposition from many parents, with a Facebook group called “My child should not be a guinea pig for Covid-19” gaining almost 30,000 members. But there was no spike in cases.

Greece: The Greeks have been heralded as having one of the lowest death rates in Europe with 1.5 to the 100,000.

Greek secondary schools reopened first followed by their primary schools.

Portugal: The Portuguese celebrated the return of 80% of their students in the last two years of high school but their teachers union was more cautious.

They cited that most students were asymptomatic and reported a fear among teachers that because the students had not been tested that they could possibly infect them.