STUDENTS and teachers at Christ Church CE Primary School have been keeping in touch with online classes and challenges amid the coronavirus lockdown.

The Leigh school closed its doors alongside all the others across the country on Friday, March 20 to protect students and staff during the pandemic.

However with students, and their parents, feeling anxious at home, the staff have used their online platform to not only set online lessons but also set fun challenges for their classes, to help them keep in touch.

Deputy headteacher Clair Gornall said: "The children feel safe in school, so when school closed last week our main priority was to make sure that even though the children weren’t coming into school they would still have daily contact with us.

"We use an online learning journal called Seesaw which enables us to communicate with all of our parents and children 24/7.

"But since this happened, we have been using it to set classes and send them messages, videos, photos, links to websites. We have tried to make learning at home as exciting as we can for them and have been setting fun challenges each day.

"I decided the other day that it would be a great idea to use Google images 3D facility and asked staff to create a picture with an animal that would put a smile on all the children’s faces. We then set the children a challenge to use it at home and send them back to us. The children took up the challenge and started to send them back to us instantly.

"It's helped their parents too as they might need guidance or just a chat, it helps us keep the school family together."