Coronavirus song using Beatles lyrics helps Peterborough special school launch YouTube channel for children home learning

Marshfields School, which teaches pupils with a wide range of moderate learning difficulties, set up its new channel today (Monday) as thousands of youngsters in Peterborough began home learning following a partial closure of schools across the country.

And the new online learning tool was kickstarted by teachers at the school in Dogsthorpe changing the lyrics of The Beatles’ Let It Be’ to include lines such as: “When you find yourself at home for some weeks, there’s a new channel you can view, teaching pearls of wisdom, Marshfields TV for free.”

Headteacher Jude MacDonald said: “Many of our students have complex needs so it’s not as simple as sending home packages.

“They thrive with people they know really well so some of the staff will deliver lessons which are recorded and edited then popped on our YouTube channel so they are still accessing learning with staff they know so well.

“I think it’s really useful.

“We’re also producing stories on Facebook - little drawings outside the writing. We’re going to keep doing that each week and there’s one on the coronavirus.”

And despite most of the pupils now learning from home, Marshfields is continuing to make sure those on free school meals receive their lunch to keep them well fed during the day.

Miss MacDonald added: “We’re still open and have between eight and 12 students here at various times, and we’re running themed weeks.

“Seventy-three students have free school meals so this morning staff collected bread, cheese, ham and yoghurts and packaged it up before going into the community and delivering it to pupils’ houses.

“We’re still running the school but the kids are not in it.

“We’re starting to see really interesting community cohesion. The community has become more disparate over the years and this is a reset.”

The YouTube channel can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx6-NvwZ5RRmSVyN-VrdI1Q/featured.