£42k-a-year Eton College offers FREE online study courses to UK teenagers during coronavirus lockdown and makes empty boarding houses available for key workers
- Eton College headmaster announces free online self-study courses to teenagers
- The courses will initially be for Year 11 and 13 pupils who were due to take exams
- Exams are cancelled this year and schools have been shut amid of coronavirus
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
Eton College is offering free self-study courses to UK teenagers during the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been announced.
The private school said its headmaster, Simon Henderson, had written to the heads of state secondary schools offering access to its online learning platform, EtonX.
The college, which counts Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex among its former pupils, is also offering free accommodation to key workers who need somewhere to live as their own families are self-isolating due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The private school said its headmaster, Simon Henderson, had written to the heads of state secondary schools offering access to its online learning platform, EtonX
The EtonX courses will initially be for Year 11 and Year 13 students, those who were due to take their GCSEs and A-levels, or equivalent qualifications, according to the college.
Exams have been cancelled this year, and schools shut as part of attempts to slow the spread of Covid-19.
Eton said: ‘At a time when schools across the UK are closed and adapting to digital learning, it is more important than ever that all in education work in partnership for the benefit of young people.
The college counts PM Boris Johnson among its former pupils, as well as Prince Harry, the Duke of Cambridge
‘EtonX self-study courses are specifically designed to be delivered 100% online and include a full range of engaging learning materials, with a personal action plan and end of course assessment for each learner.
‘The courses are being made available to all UK state secondary schools, free of charge, for use where individual schools feel that EtonX can complement the great work that their staff are already doing, in challenging circumstances.’
The school, where fees are more than £42,000 a year, also said it is offering accommodation in its empty boarding houses ‘for adult key workers, where they need alternative accommodation because their own families are self-isolating’.
The first workers are due to arrive from Monday.
Meanwhile, another fee-paying school, The Perse School, Cambridge, has developed a new, free, online maths programme for 11 to 16-year-olds in partnership with former maths teacher and coding entrepreneur Rob Percival.
Students watch short films of a virtual maths teacher explaining a topic and working examples and then can choose problems to solve.
As they solve the problem, the tutor offers assistance and guidance.
The EtonX courses will initially be for Year 11 and Year 13 students, those who were due to take their GCSEs and A-levels, or equivalent qualifications, according to the college