Why this matters now

The Virtual School Head role keeps growing. What began as a duty to promote the education of looked after children now extends to children with a social worker, children in kinship care, and, under the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act, children in need more broadly. Every extension carries the same expectation: raise awareness of that group's specific barriers and promote practice that supports attendance and engagement, usually without a proportionate rise in resource.

Attendance sits at the heart of the Personal Education Plan process, and for many of the children a Virtual School supports, the barrier isn't motivation. It's placement instability, trauma, medical need or a system that hasn't caught up with how disrupted their school journey has been.

AV1 is a telepresence robot that lets a child who cannot physically attend school join lessons, see friends and stay connected to school life from home, hospital or a new placement. For Virtual School teams, it offers a way to keep a child's education moving during exactly the moments when it's most at risk of stalling.