Highland pupils enjoy Wake Up Shake Up classes online

9th June 2020

Highland pupils have been jumping out of bed in great numbers to join ‘Wake Up Shake Up' sessions online since mid-May, as part of the High Life Highland to support communities during the Covid-19 crisis.

The movement and dance sessions are available to primary school age pupils with a Highland Google account, and are led by Amy Gallagher of High Life Highland. As all HLH locations are currently closed to visitors, this is just one of many ways that HLH staff have been finding to connect with people during the lockdown.

High Life Highland's Amy Gallagher said: "We’ve been delighted with the response to the weekly ‘Wake up Shake Up’ sessions. We had 300 pupils join us for the first one, and that more than doubled the following week. The feedback we’ve had from young people taking part has been very enthusiastic and we are really pleased to be able to do something to help our communities during this unusual time."

Robert Quigley of The Highland Council’s digital development team, who was previously Head Teacher of Milton of Leys Primary School, was involved in setting up the online sessions. Robert said: "After seeing a message by HLH’s CEO Steve Walsh on social media, it spurred me into thinking that we could support schools through the live streaming option on the digital learning site, Google Classroom. It’s our Highland-version of fitness coach Joe Wicks! And the great thing is that its easy for pupils to join the sessions; they just have to log in to their Google Classroom account and click on the link that appears just before the start time."