Are children missing out on practising vital motor skills in lockdown?
Video report by Lauren Ostridge
The headteacher of a Cumbrian School says virtual lessons could mean children are missing out on practising vital fine motor skills.
Grasmere Primary School and Nursery have 75 pupils, and more than 50 are currently learning from home.
Speaking to ITV Border, headteacher Johanna Goode said: "After the last lockdown when we saw the children had managed to do we realised that they'd done brilliantly, but they had lost some basic skills particularly sort of handwriting skills, drawing skills - that sort of side of things.
"We'd also heard from the parents that it was very difficult to teach the children at home - very understandable!
"Children are small human beings, they're learning about everything so they need to be manipulating they need to be using their fine motor skills, they need to be jumping and moving around."
Every week the school sends out activity packs that will keep kids writing, cutting, measuring and sticking just like they would do in school.
It is hoped these types of activities will encourage children to put down their screens and use their hands more.
Ms Goode said: "I think the packs are working really well because the children understand them, they can engage with them, and the parents understand them.
"They're interesting enough and they can feed back to their teachers very quickly. It's all about relationships and keeping it varied and interesting for them, which is really hard to do when they're sat at home without their peers."
In such a changing high-tech world, this school is proving that traditional skills are still needed now as much as ever.