If students are learning from home, they can no longer claim they left their homework on the kitchen table. And the amount of work carried out online means it’s highly unlikely the dog, cat or hamster could have eaten it.

Well, that’s a relief, right? Surely we can wave goodbye to those exasperating arguments over essay hand-ins?

Unfortunately not. If there’s one thing Blackpool teacher Josh Quinn (@quinnglish) has learned during this crisis, it’s that students have an endless capacity for coming up with new and ingenious excuses.

Watch: 13 types of remote learner - which do you teach?

TikTok: What teachers need to know

Coronavirus: Online learning ‘has to beat a cat dancing on TikTok’

In a three-part series captioned “email wars” shared on the social media app TikTok, the English teacher has dramatised his experience of outsmarting students who would really rather not crack on with their remote learning.

Online learning: Students’ hilarious excuses

With just about every excuse in the book thrown his way, Mr Quinn has an answer for them all - and the results are hilarious.

The mini-series has proved extremely popular, amassing nearly 4 million views and 700,000 likes. No wonder this resilient teacher describes himself as the “CEO of email wars” in his TikTok bio.

Watch the three videos below...

@quinnglish

Email wars ##teacher ##student ##teachersoftiktok ##teacherproblems ##teacherlife ##schoollife ##remotelearning

♬ original sound - sounds for slomo_bro!

@quinnglish

Email wars pt 2 - ##parent and ##teacher join forces. ##education ##student ##teachersoftiktok ##remotelearning ##teacherproblems ##schoollife

♬ original sound - sounds for slomo_bro!

@quinnglish

Email wars pt 3 ##teacher ##student ##remotelearning ##teacherproblems ##teacherlife ##school ##schoollife ##education ##emailwars

♬ original sound - sounds for slomo_bro!