An excuse is a warm and lovely thing. When something goes wrong, there is something comforting in the knowledge that you are not really to blame and don’t have to make amends.

The ability to have a ready alibi is formed early in our educational development: most infant pupils have an excuse at hand for when they get the blame, whether they were the culprit or not. “It wasn’t me,” becomes a mantra, while others prefer the plaintive, “It’s not my fault!”

Luckily, most get out of the habit pretty quickly, but for a lot of teenagers with less resilient egos, the attractions of an excuse are still pretty powerful, and students in S5 can be heard blaming their struggles in a Higher subject on the teacher they had in first year.

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Unfortunately, the world’s largest justification for falling short is coming over the hill, giving a “get out of jail free” card that pupils will be able to use for years to come to explain poor school results, average qualifications and a mediocre career: all could be traced back to the coronavirus pandemic of 2020-21.

Giving students a positive mindset in the coronavirus crisis

But let’s instead focus on a potential upside: many students, rather than seeing this disjointed education season as a reason to throw in the towel, will use it as a springboard, a welcome chance to stress-test their resilience and excel against the odds. They will make themselves the main player in a narrative of conquering adversity that stretches back to David taking out Goliath with a pebble and still resonates in 2021 with the likes of tiny Alcoyano beating mighty Real Madrid in this season’s Spanish Cup - not because these students are cleverer than their classmates, but because they show a desire to bounce back.

And whether students from similar starting points are long-term Covid winners or losers doesn’t have to be down to chance. Previously, it was thought that being resilient was a randomly distributed genetic gift, as difficult to alter as tying the left hand of a southpaw behind their back. However, we have come to learn through the work of American psychologist Professor Carol Dweck and others that this is more of a muscle to be developed through having a can-do, positive mindset.

This, of course, is where teachers will have an incredibly important role: they can convince their pupils that rather than “losing” their education, they have an opportunity to become part of a positive, life-affirming story - one that they will be able to recount and draw strength from for decades to come.

Gordon Cairns is an English and forest school teacher, based in Scotland