Pupils left holding the baby
Pupils received an insight into parenthood in February when the school took delivery of six virtual babies.
The babies which, like real newborns, demanded to be fed, burped, changed and comforted, spent the weekend being cared for by six volunteers. The challenge was part of Sibford’s PSHE Sex and Relationships programme. Zoe Connor, head of PSHE, said: “The aim was to enable our young people to learn from experience what it means to have the responsibilities of a parent. Each baby was programmed to keep an electronic record of every time it was neglected or comforted over the two- day period. This information was then down-loaded and returned to school so that we could discuss with the pupils how well they managed to care for their infant. “I have to say that generally they all
did very well, although the reports did identify a number of missed nappy changes, and instances of the babies not being held correctly. Also, only one of the six pupils successfully managed to give their baby the correct number of feeds.”
22 / The Sibfordian
Sisters Abi and Sam Veres (above) were two of the pupils who cared for virtual babies. Abi (15) said: “When we took the babies to the shops we got a lot of very judgemental looks ... it made me realise the difficulties teenage mums go through.” Added Sam (18) “It was really, really tiring. On the first night my baby woke up every hour and on the second night she woke at 4am and 8am so I got hardly any sleep at all and feel really tired.”
The virtual babies caught the attention of BBC News who came out to find out how the girls got on.
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