Headteacher hosting live cooking lessons for pupils in lockdown

Ian Sterling, headteacher at Castle House School in Newport, hosted a Facebook live last week for all the pupils so they could cook along with him at home and has the same planned for this week.

He said it was important to bring some normality into the children's lives while in lockdown, and as an independent school, the decision to close was particularly tough – but teaching has simply moved online, with great success.

Mr Sterling taught a group of around 40 how to make scones on Facebook live last Thursday and is planning another one this week.

He said: "I am the opposite of what you would call a 'good cook', but it is about keeping the kids going with different things.

"I have been headteacher at Castle House for just over two years now. We are an independent school so we faced a pretty big challenge when schools were closing because we are effectively a business.

"We rely on fees to keep us going. So immediately we finished school when the lockdown was announced and switched to Microsoft Teams and have been teaching all the children across the school on there since.

"We do three lessons a day, English, Maths and a topic, we have recently started doing French as well.

"All children across the country need a dose of normality. We are in extraordinary times so this is a bit of fun really."

He said working on Microsoft Teams with the children has worked surprisingly well and he so he wanted to explore other online ways to keep them occupied.

"We obviously still have to have some key workers' children in the school but the majority are at home. I think parents are starting to despair slightly, thinking of ways to entertain the kids. So I came up with an idea of doing some cooking.

"It was crazy last week, doing it live on Facebook. We had about 30 to 40 watchers at the time. A lot of people were following along and sent in pictures afterwards of the kids making the scones. It was fantastic."

Anyone can join in and watch and Mr Sterling encourages any parents to get involved with their children. The next session will be on Thursday at 12.30pm, making pizzas, and the ingredients are already listed on the Castle House School Facebook page, where the live link can also be accessed on the day.