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Families are discovering that home learning does not have to mean hours spent at a desk.

Students from Forest Hall School are being encouraged to look beyond the books to develop new skills during the Coronavirus school shutdown.

The school is keen to reassure parents that good home learning does not have to revolve around traditional English and maths lessons.

Head of school Hannah Jones is celebrating alternative ways of learning at home with daily social media posts promoting what students are achieving.

She said: “We were concerned that parents were worrying about how to home educate their children as it is a big responsibility. Teaching your own children can be difficult and comes with its own challenges. We did not want parents stressing about whether they were doing it the right way.

“We wanted to reassure parents and to promote other ways of learning, like baking, gardening and completing puzzles. Those activities are still ways of learning skills they need for life, while allowing them to be creative. Children can still be learning maths while baking, so they are really important tasks to tackle. They do not necessarily have to be sat at a desk to be learning.

“Parents have been asked to send us photos of what their children are doing and we are sharing them on social media to give other families ideas of what is possible at home.

“It is really important for us to keep in touch with our families and to continue celebrating their achievements as that is what we would normally be doing in school.”

Students are being encouraged to write diary entries and reports on their new-found skills.

Sarah Power, enrichment lead, has been teaching online to play chess and take part in yoga during the shutdown. She said: “We want our young people to try new things. That could be doing a crossword or playing chess; we would love for parents to share their pastimes with their children.

“These are challenging times and we want our children to develop a resilience to get through it. We want them to find a new love of learning and to look forward to coming back to us when we reopen our doors.”