Another milestone has been reached at Aspire on Tuesday with the return of Year 10 for face-to-face learning in the classroom. In line with the Government guidance a quarter of Aspire's Year 10 students attended and it was fantastic to see them after 12 weeks of remote learning at home. The students experienced high quality teaching in maths, English and science, all taught by specialist teachers either in the room or beamed into the classroom via a live video link. Students also had the opportunity to discuss their wellbeing and general progress with their Lead Teacher whilst also benefiting from support with their option subjects.

  
Year 10 students waiting to enter Aspire and Mr Carter watching Mr Thompson deliver a 'live' lesson

Headteacher Mr Woods enthused, "As always, we have had extremely high expectations of our students in terms of their scholarly work ethic and behaviour and I am thrilled that they have risen to the challenge and made us proud.

"It has been amazing to have our Year 10 students back in school today benefiting from face to face teaching and we look forward to more students attending in the coming days as we begin to open more widely. The staff are extremely excited to finally begin seeing more of our students again, although it is important to note that Aspire has been open throughout the lockdown with our fabulous staff continuing to educate the children of key worker families. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the families that have sent their students back to school today and hope their experiences provide confidence for further attendance in the coming weeks."

  
Year 10 students having a 'live' lesson with Mr Buchanan on the whiteboard

Due to the social distancing restrictions in place each Year 10 class has the same teacher all day, so to avoid these Year 10 'bubbles' being broken iPads on tripods are set up in each classroom allowing the teachers to deliver their specialist subject to the other classes for a 'live' video lesson.

"The live lessons worked brilliantly allowing interaction between students and teachers despite them not all being in the same room. You can't beat having a specialist teacher deliver their subject; playing a pre-recorded video wouldn't allow the students to ask questions and enrich their learning," said Assistant Headteacher Mr Blackwell.

"This type of lesson delivery is also being adopted elsewhere, so we are rightly proud to have passed this idea on to other schools so that their students can also benefit from this technology.

"And despite the nerves of being beamed around school via our iPad cameras, I think we have a few budding TV stars hidden amongst our teachers!" he added.