Educating Yorkshire's Matthew Burton joins David Attenborough and Jodie Whittaker for BBC virtual learning scheme

Headteacher Matthew Burton’s message to the thousands of parents who have found themselves grappling to teach their children from home is a simple one.

“Just do your best, that’s all you can do,” he says. “Your job is not to make sure your kids can recite Shakespeare without looking when they come back to school. Just try and keep things ticking over, just do your best.

“But also understand that these are difficult times for everybody, children included and it’s about being there to support them.”

Now he has joined the likes of Professor Brian Cox, Sir David Attenborough, Yorkshire’s Jodie Whittaker and Manchester City footballer Sergio Aguero on a BBC virtual learning scheme to support the teaching of the nation’s schoolchildren.

“This is such a massive project that would usually take months and months and this has just been a huge joined up effort to get something so fantastic off the ground and support eight million kids at home when schools aren’t there,” he says.

“This is not about denigrating the amazing work that schools and teachers are doing every single day.

“And it’s certainly not to take away from the heroic efforts of parents who were suddenly told they were now responsible for their children’s education as well as a running a business or working a full time job from home or looking after a newborn baby.

“People’s lives have been turned on their head and what really attracted me to supporting this project was the fact that it is offering genuinely beneficial content that can help people.

“It’s to complement the brilliant efforts that are going on everywhere and it’s so, so accessible that it can’t help but be a positive.”

More than 200 teachers and a host of well-known faces are involved in the BBC’s new Bitesize Daily service that launched on Monday.

The 14 week education offer of curriculum-based learning for primary and secondary students is designed to keep children motivated and learning with lessons, inspirational messages of support and tips on how to stay focused. It is aimed at minimising disruption to children’s education and providing routine.

Renowned physicist Professor Brian Cox will cover topics including the solar system, force and gravity, Sergio Aguero will support children to count in Spanish, former Morley and Outwood MP Ed Balls goes back to his political roots in economics to deliver a maths class, and Doctor Who’s Jodie Whittaker will also be dropping in on daily lessons.

Musical stars including Liam Payne and Mabel are taking part in a week-long Musical Big Read and Sir David Attenborough is set to be involved in helping youngsters to learn about the oceans and animals.

This week, students are also ‘meeting’ Mr Burton, a father himself who worked with TV and radio presenter Katie Thistleton on secondary school-level English sessions.

“This time in our lives is so atypical,” he says. “I think what the BBC has done is think massively outside the box and really quickly got an enormously talented, enthusiastic and kind team of people together who just want to make a difference.

“It’s been a real pleasure, privilege and honour to be asked to do it. It’s a really humbling moment.”

BBC Bitesize Daily will deliver tailored learning sessions across BBC iPlayer, Red Button, BBC Bitesize website and app, BBC Four and BBC Sounds.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor