Shirebrook teenagers have filmed a video to give a students’ eye view of their school for new starters who will not get the chance to familiarise themselves with the building because of the coronavirus lockdown.

Students at Shirebrook Academy spent a week filming sequences that explain how to find different departments, locate the toilets and even how to work the photocopier.

They hope it will ensure that the new Year Seven intake will be able to find their way around the school when they join in September.

Shirebrook Academy runs a transition programme to prepare its new starters and would normally be busy sending staff and students into its local feeder primary schools to discuss any concerns or issues.

It also usually invites Year Six students in for normal lessons during the last two weeks of the summer term so that they “can hit the ground running in September”.

However, this year all its transition activities will be online, including a variety of learning activities and a bespoke telephone contact programme with those who would have had enhanced transition. It means none of the students will be able to see the building for themselves, so to make up for it the handful of students still attending school — the children of keyworkers — have made the familiarisation video (above).

Students who have been forced to study at home, meanwhile, were invited to write down tips to help next year’s Year Sevens settle in.

Helen Wakefield, assistant principal, said: “Transition to secondary school is a time of great change in a young person’s life and we know that many students would be anxious about this, even without Covid-19, which is why we do so much work to prepare Year Sixes for joining Shirebrook Academy.

“We won’t be able to start that work this year because of lockdown, and so we asked the students to make a video that the new Year Sevens would be able to watch to ensure that they wouldn’t be totally unfamiliar with the school when they arrive.

“We are really disappointed that we cannot provide our usual transition programme, but we’re delighted with the video.

“The students have been extremely creative and approached it from a totally different angle to that which I would have chosen, simply because they have a better understanding of what the important things are from a student’s perspective.”

Among the written comments to be made available to the new Year Sevens was: “Don’t be scared, be happy, this might be something big for you, but enjoy this educational ride, there is support out there,” from Tamara Marciniak, 11.

“We have an amazing pastoral team who you can refer to and who will help you with anything.”