"It was really nice to see all my classmates, and the teachers, and the school as well," says 15-year-old Lilja, one of around 900,000 Finnish students who returned to their classrooms this week. "At first I was wearing a face-mask, but when I saw that no one else was wearing one I took it off." Just like Irish students, Lilja and her classmates have been out of school for the past two months.
On a WhatsApp video call Lilja, Claudia, and Emma - all in the Finnish equivalent of their Junior Certificate year at Pakilan Yläaste secondary school in Helsinki - relate, in excellent English, the details of their new school routine.