Covid-19 Information

Covid-19 Lateral Flow Device testing is available to all staff and students who are on site. Where -agreement is given, students and staff are offered twice weekly testing. These lateral flow tests are part of the Covid-19 screening programme to identify individuals who are positive for Covid-19 but asymptomatic (无症状的) to help reduce the spread within our community.

The health, safety and well-being of all our staff and young people is our absolute priority. We have put lots of measures in place to lessen the risk of spread and review these frequently in line with the latest guidance.

The school has carried out home learning methods on our well established learning platform to ensure that those students who have been sent home are able to continue their learning by using all resources available, and to support parents and pupils during this time.

Please believe that our school is devoted to the safety and well-being of all of our pupils and staff. We follow guidance from Public Health England to ensure that our school communities and those around them are best protected.

We would like to reassure parents and students that we will continue to routinely review our risk assessments and guidance.

If you have any concerns, please click the “Government Advice” link below for additional information. Government Advice

Kind regards,

West Exe School

Professor Ashok Goel of Georgia Tech developed an artificially intelligent teaching assistant to help handle the enormous number of student questions in the online class, Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence. This online course is a core requirement of Georgia Tech's online Master of Science in Computer Science program. Professor Goel already had eight teaching assistants, but that wasn't enough to deal with the overwhelming number of daily questions from students.

Goel and his team developed several versions of a virtual assistant named Jill Watson before releasing her to the online forums. At first, the virtual assistant wasn't too great. Then they began to feed Jill with the questions and answers. After some adjustments and sufficient time, Jill was able to answer the students' questions correctly 97% of the time. The virtual assistant became so advanced and realistic that the students didn't know she was a computer. The students, who were studying artificial intelligence, were interacting with the virtual assistant and couldn't tell it apart from a real human being. Goel didn't inform them about Jill's true identity until April 26. The students were actually very positive about the experience.

The goal of Professor Goel's virtual assistant next year is to take over answering 40% of all the questions posed by students on the online forum. The name Jill Watson will, of course, change to something else next semester. Professor Goel has a much rosier outlook on the future of artificial intelligence than, say, Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates or Steve Wozniak.

At West Exe School, students have access to a wide range of electronic resources to support heir progress through the curriculum. Below are a range of resources, with a brief introduction of what they are. If you have any questions regarding E-Learning, please do not hesitate to contact Toby Holland who will be able to help you.

Electronic Resources