A SECONDARY school made sure some of its students didn't miss out on the chance to gain work experience in lockdown.

With offices around town closed and staff members working from home under government guidelines, many Year 10s have had to miss out this summer.

But in a first for Royal Wootton Bassett Academy, pupils there have been able to link up virtually with companies like Air Photo Services in Swindon, Scape Group and Jacobs Engineering Group.

Careers leader Kerry Hall said: “Virtual work experience has grown both locally and nationally, I think it’s great that students and businesses are adapting to this new environment.

“Every year for the last couple of years we’ve encouraged our Year 10s to take on this challenge. We have around 300 students every year go out and do work experience.

“I think it’s very beneficial for them because for those students who might not get a huge amount of support at home, it helps build their confidence and their chances for their future.”

Pupils are completing an internship through webinars, completing training and tasks as well as being set projects.

Since the online initiative was launched in March around 30 students have took part.

Kerry said: “It’s such a challenging time for them because they’re having to do quite a bit of work all from home.

“They’ve had to adapt to this big change and they’re doing so well.”

Rebecca Comley is in Year 10 and spent a week working with Air Photo Services.

The 15-year-old said: “I worked with a company that uses aerial images to look at changing land use. They use the images to help sort out legal disputes. I chose them because I have an interest in geography and we didn’t just have to look at images in England but across the world, which was interesting.

“Doing it virtually was really useful, I still got the basics of the learning I needed by doing it online. So if I go work with them in person then they can skip the introduction part because I now know it.

“I got feedback from the company and they said the standard of work I did was at an undergraduate level. It was great to hear that because there was so much uncertainty around the experience as you’re not sure you’re doing the work right. But to have the reassurance is good.”

Across the week Rebecca learned about satellite images and looked at how land has changed over the last 80 years.

A spokesperson for Scape Group, meanwhile, said: “We are really encouraging students to embrace this new way of working, and build up skills, which they can add to their CV and support them later in finding work or university courses.”