“OK, Badgers Class,” said Miss Burnell. “Before I take the register this morning I have some special news. I’m very excited to say that we have a new student joining our class today.”

We looked around the room, trying to spot where they were, but there were no new faces.

“This student is very special because they aren’t able to come to school in person,” said Miss Burnell. “They have an illness which means they need to stay at home so that they won’t come into contact with any germs.”

Anthony’s hand shot up. Miss Burnell ignored him.

“They attended another school but just moved to this area,” Miss Burnell went on. “I’m sure you can imagine how daunting it must be to join a new class. I hope you’ll make them feel very welcome.”

Anthony stretched his arm even higher. Miss Burnell nodded at him.

“How are they going to join our class if they can’t come to school?” Anthony said.

Miss Burnell smiled. “I’ll show you,” she said. She reached into the cardboard box and took out a large white object. There was a hushed gasp as she turned it around.

“It’s a robot!” said Erin.

It had a big white cube for a body and a smaller cube for its head. On the small cube were two oval shapes that looked like eyes.

“This is how our new pupil attended her previous school,” Miss Burnell explained. “The robot is connected to her tablet at home, so she will be able to see and hear what we’re doing in class. It’ll be as if she were here with us. Isn’t that clever?”

Miss Burnell pressed something on the bottom of the robot and the top of the white cube head lit up blue and its eyes glowed white. On the bottom cube were a few holes close together that looked like some kind of speaker.

“Woah!” said Seb. “It’s waking up!”

There were two strips of lights on the sides of the robot which blinked steadily for a few moments, then went solid.

“I think we’ll position the robot here, next to Billy,” said Miss Burnell.

Billy stared at the robot and leaned away from it.

“Miss! You can put it next to me if you want to?” said Nia from the back of the class.

“Thank you, Nia, but it needs to be at the front so that the camera has a clear view of the lesson,” said Miss Burnell. She went back to her desk.

“OK. I’m going to take the register now,” she said.

We’d heard the register so many times we knew exactly when our names were. We all waited to see what would happen when a new name was called.

“Bea,” Miss Burnell began.

“Yes, Miss.”

“Katie.”

“Yes, Miss.”

“Nia.”

“Yes, Miss.”

“Anna.”

“Yes, Miss,” I said.

“David.”

“Yes, Miss.”

“Ellie.”