STACEY Green and her husband Nigel have been teaching their daughter Imogen at home after schools were forced to close for Lockdown 3. 

The nine-year-old is in Year 5 at Westlea Primary School and is taking part in her classes virtually and completing tasks with her parents. 

Imogen is also having to shield until February 21 as she has a rare genetic condition called Myhre Syndrome, which causes heart and aorta problems. It can also cause bone and joint abnormalities. 

She had to have spinal surgery in April 2019, which saw a rod put into her back, and she now has to wear a scoliosis suit. 

Her mum has agreed to share her homeschooling experiences with the Adver and here’s her first diary...

January 11: Homeschooling today was already prepared and ready to go for when Imogen woke up. She is not a fan of waking up for school usually, but she very much enjoys homeschooling as she gets to wear what she wants. Imogen is a proper diva – make-up, ‘cool’ outfits, and a little bit of lipgloss and she’s ready to log on to Teams. Today she had English, Maths, PHSE, and an outdoor activity. 

The outdoor activity was to go for a walk and see which types of trees she could identify using The Woodland Trust app called the British Tree Identification. Imogen enjoyed this activity, it was lots of fun because she loves being outside.

January 12: Imogen's start task was to take part in a Joe Wicks PE session. After a little persuading, out came the yoga mat and Imogen was doing her high kicks and exercises.

This was a great way to start the day, it got her motivated and woke her up ready to start learning. 

After this she looked at planets, she was focussing on Mars, looking at facts about it. Imogen was particularly amazed that Mars has 687 days – thinking of how long she would have to wait for a birthday! 

The schools always ensure there is an outdoor activity every day to get the children outside if they are able to. Imogen enjoyed going for a bike ride to look for hibernating animals. 

January 13: The first task was a funny one, she had to make as many words with six random letters. So her dad and I decided we would join in too. We printed this off three times and we all tried to find as many words as we could, Imogen really enjoyed this. 

English today was to write a police incident report about a story they had read, about flying frogs. Imogen found this hilarious as she could make it really silly. 

January 14: Imogen was tired after a late night and not having a good sleep. After breakfast in bed, she was up and ready to log on. 

On Teams the teacher went through the tasks set for the day. Imogen stayed on the English Teams for support in completing it. For the maths she had a little group on Teams working on multiplication. 

In PSHE she looked at ‘whose job is most important in society’. Imogen found this really interesting and it was for me too as I listened to her rationale for placing them in order of importance – it was an eye-opener. She thought a doctor’s role is most important as they save lives, followed by electricians as they give us power for WiFi. 

January 15: Imogen’s favourite day of the week as it’s a half-day! At school usually, she would be in until 3.30pm but as it’s homeschooling they only have to be online until 12.30pm. 

Imogen enjoyed the first task as it was one of her favourite things to do, which is to go on YouTube to watch a video. 

In English she was asked to write a newspaper report. Imogen decided she was going to do this on the iPad and she Googled a picture of a flying pig as that was her headline and put the picture in the report. She also enjoyed maths and working on Spelling Shed. 

The outdoor activity was lots of fun, we went to Stanton Park to look for animal tracks and collect items to make a mandala. We took our dog, Thor. Imogen enjoyed this and we got very muddy. 

We have been homeschooling since the beginning of January and we have got into a good routine now. We are very lucky that both her dad and I can be at home most of the time to help with any difficulties. 

Her school has been amazing setting up Teams so easily, the work is so accessible and the children can download and hand in work very easily.