New plan for Britain's first state-funded 'virtual school' If approved, the new "Wey Ecademy" would be the first state-funded online school. The move follows a growth in the number of "Moocs" - massive open online courses - run by large numbers of universities across the world. It would principally cater for families that already choose to home-educate their children although the trust insisted it would also provide greater choice for other parents unhappy with the standard of education being provided at local schools. Critics warned that distance learning was a poor substitute for actual "face-to-face interaction." But a spokesman for the trust told the Times Educational Supplement: "Ofsted has said that 20 per cent of lesson time is lost due to pupil behaviour, but this is totally eliminated in the ecademy. Up to half a child's day is taken up by getting to and from school as well as breaks and moving between lessons, whereas there is no such issue with a school like ours. Under the plans, pupils will use home computers to log into lessons using a secure "intranet" system. They will follow teachers remotely and be able to ask questions using an audio link or via an instant text messaging service. Each class will feature no more than 20 pupils, with 100 in a year group. It will initially open for pupils in Year 5 (age nine and 10) up to Year 10 (age 14 and 15). Older year groups will be added in coming years to create a sixth-form, with qualifications including the International GCSE and A-levels being provided. According to the school's prospectus, children will be expected to log-in at 9.15am for a warm-up session before lessons start from 9.30am, with a full curriculum being provided. Younger pupils will finish at 1pm and older students will continue to 1.45pm. The school would officially be based in Buckinghamshire, with the government providing funding on a per-pupil basis. But Ian Addison, an IT teacher at Riders Infant and Junior School, Hampshire, and a prominent blogger on education technology, told the TES it would be no substitute for "face-to-face interaction." "We always seem to assume that the school of the future will be led videoconferencing and robot teachers, but I think that the face-to-face interaction with other children and with adults can't be replaced by this school," he said.