Virtual reality technology helps potential students step inside Shropshire school
Virtual reality technology is helping to bring a Shropshire school to life in homes across the globe.
Potential students of Ellesmere College can now experience just what it is like to walk around the campus in north Shropshire while sat in their bedroom in China, Russia, Malaysia and many other countries.
The forward-thinking College has developed personalised branded VR headsets to send around the world in a bid to show others what being there is really like.
Longstanding Headmaster Brendan Wignall said: “We are delighted to be able to offer this exciting and innovative opportunity for people interested in coming to Ellesmere College.
“The current students are the first generation for whom virtual reality has been accessible and we hope it will help them to feel like Ellesmere is home from home if they do decide to board here.
“It’s a chance for us to enable more people to learn about Ellesmere and take a look at the great facilities we have here.
“It’s not always easy for our prospective students to come and view the school, so this shows how committed we are to helping the global engagement of our school.
“It is also the perfect opportunity for family members who may never come and visit the pupils to picture just what their day to day life at school is like, it could be a great comfort to grandparents, aunts, uncles and siblings who live thousands of miles away.”
The independent school, which has 550 students including more than 100 from overseas and 260 who board there, employed a former student to capture all the footage of the school which is shown through the headsets.
The devices show classrooms, the lunch halls, boys and girls’ dorm rooms, the theatre, the swimming pool and a shot of the tennis centre from the umpire’s chair, so if you look down with the VR headset on you may get a sense you’re about to fall off.
The technology works by creating a lifesize 3D virtual environment so whichever way the wearer looks, the picture moves up, down, from side to side or at an angle depending on how they move their head.
The virtual tour can be found on the College website.
