Dedicated staff at Maidenhead's Desborough College have come up with a way of helping September's intake of new students get to know their new school in advance - despite the Coronavirus.

Head of computing at the school in Shoppenhangers Road, Matt Lovegrove said: "Usually students moving into Year 7 at our school would spend substantial time on site before September to get used to the facilities, have a tour, meet key staff and to start to feel comfortable with being in a bigger school. This transition process is key and helps reduces worry."

Faced with lockdown restrictions, the school team got together and came up with a website page - http://www.desborough.org.uk/school-life/welcome-year-6/ - dedicated to helping newcomers get as close as possible to the school from home, without breaching the current guidelines.

The page offers videos from key members of staff, a full virtual tour guide, plus a series of challenges that can be done and enjoyed at home.

There is also a reading challenge and interactive live question sessions with teachers or Year 7 pupils answering.

Students who are particularly anxious will be able to have a socially distanced on site tour at the school's discretion.

Headteacher Maggie Callaghan said: "Transition is such an important part of the process of moving to a new school. For Desborough it is particularly important because we take boys from over 40 primary schools and so the coming together to get to know one another under the banner of being part of the Desborough family is key to a smooth transition.

"Despite COVID-19 attempting to hamper these plans, we just decided that we needed to be a bit more creative and give the boys as much of a Desborough experience as we possibly could. I am very much looking forward to hosting the live Q&A session and trying to allay some of the concerns of parents and boys.

"I am so very proud of our transition offer and we are really looking forward to getting to know our boys virtually initially and then in person when we can."