Schools and pupils across Europe were heavily affected by the measures taken by various authorities to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. While complete school closures were rather rare and of relatively short duration, the rapid shift to distance or blended learning revealed large differences in the levels of digitalisation between countries as well as the digital capacities of schools, teachers and learners. This report provides a brief insight into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the organisation of school education and reviews key policy responses implemented by European education systems to tackle emerging difficulties in teaching and learning. The results highlight, among other things, the importance of offering students additional small-group tutoring or differentiated teaching to help those experiencing difficulties due to distance learning. At the same time, the analysis also shows how, in many places, the sudden shift to distance learning served as an important push towards the acceleration of school digitalisation.