A VIRTUAL teacher created by Liverpool pupils is to help train school staff of the future.

Children from Evelyn Community Primary School in Prescot were asked by university researchers to come with their ideal teacher.

The pioneering research from Ormskirk’s Edge Hill university followed a national focus on the shortage of men entering the profession.

Around 86%of new entrants at primary schools are female and the figure is 62% at secondary level.

But in their feedback the pupils stressed they did not care what sex the teacher was so long as they were good at their job.

The pupils also suggested an ideal teacher should be smartly dressed and have two faces– a smiley, welcoming face and a stern face.

The pupils then used their ideas to create avatars using Second Life – an online world of more than 20 million users.

And after their views on the ideal teacher were echoed in surveys at schools across the region, Edge Hill University has now decided to use the avatars to help train the 1,000 plus trainee teachers it welcomes each year – beginning in September.

Reflecting the pupils’ indifference to the sex of the teacher, the avatars will randomly alternate between a man and woman.

The trainees will have access to the avatars by visiting a virtual island on Second Life and will be able to ask them questions relating to their classroom experiences and research.