Merseyside: Robots brought in to help Wirral children return to school

The device, brought to school with the teenager, allows him to access a one-way live broadcast and communicate via microphone.

The pilot, which ran from April to July, involved seven Wirral schools where pupils using AV1 saw official attendance scores increase by an average of 21%.

The number of hours students attended class increased by 42%.

A representative from a Wirral specialist secondary school participating in the pilot said: “Once fully connected the student enjoyed the experience.

“There is clearly so much potential for building relationships and trust in learning.”

The council said AV1 would be used as a short-term intervention tool to enable young people to gradually reintegrate into the school system.

The local authority said EBSA training was also offered to all schools in the borough, with staff at 84% of Wirral schools already receiving the training.

Wirral is the first authority on Merseyside to adopt robots and include them in a formal offer for young people in the borough.