Shrewsbury's Dave Edwards does online PE sessions with school
A Shrewsbury school scored a special guest to help teach pupils lock down PE lessons on its YouTube channel.
Shrewsbury Town's Dave Edwards has been doing Zoom lessons with community coaches and children from Severndale Specialist Academy in Monkmoor. The sessions are then uploaded to YouTube for all the school's youngsters to get involved.
Teachers have also been having daily Zoom calls with students as well as putting up videos showing activities and singing to cheer up pupils stuck at home during the pandemic.
Richard Healey, a teacher at Severndale, believes the YouTube channel has gone down well with students and seeing faces they know is helping them feel a sense of normality despite the lock down.
He said: "Online learning has created a huge amount of challenges, but it has also opened up a vast number of amazing opportunities for us to show the exciting possibilities of online learning in the 21st century.
"We needed to find a way to connect with our students, all of whom have unique challenges in the way they are able to access an educational programme provided not only in school, but also at home.
"A number of staff have reported positive engagement in these Zoom sessions, with students speaking positively with other classmates, showing with pride work they have completed on previous days or, for some of our more complex learners, just giving a smile of recognition as they see a familiar staff member’s face on the screen.
"For one of our older students, the online platform has been even more beneficial than many staff could ever have predicted.
"In school, this particular individual had significant difficulty joining in with his class and engaging in shared learning opportunities.
"However, since using a technological method to aid integration, he has begun to regularly interact with classmates in daily Zoom meetings, and enjoys talking with classmates he had previously seemed very distant from.
"We are now hoping that these positive changes can be built upon to ensure his social progress can be maintained as he eventually re-enters school."
