A ten-year-old boy who suffers from a rare disease and is often unable to attend school will send a robot to classes instead.

Keir Wallace, from Portobello in Edinburgh, hopes he will be able to observe lessons via a "telepresence" robot called AV1 while he is sitting at home.

His family have been given one of the devices to use on a trial basis and are appealing for Edinburgh City Council to provide one permanently and allow it into the classroom.

A rare auto-immune disease known as FCAS2 means he has to take days off school frequently.

He had around 77% attendance at St John's Primary last year.

The robot can see 360 degrees and would enable Keir to be marked as attending the lessons, as he watches from a terminal at home through a camera in its head.

It would also enable him to ask questions in class via a loudspeaker and Keir's father John said it would stop son from being isolated socially.

John said: "With this robot he can have almost full attendance at achool, and attendance is amazingly important for attainment."

He continued: "Keir would be able to attend school, even when he wasn't able to walk into school.

"He has a lifelong condition - he needs to have his education."

John said equalities legislation should compel the school to allow the use of the Norwegian-designed AV1.

Keir said: "It's quite hard because I'm off sometimes so the teacher can't always help me.

"The class will move on and I'll just stay behind."

AV1 is specifically designed for children with long-term illnesses and is controlled via an app from the child's home or bed.

The robot is already in use in classrooms in Scandanavia and the company behind it, No Isolation, hopes to roll it out elsewhere.

It enables pupils to participate in classes by flashing its head, letting a teacher know the child wants to ask a question.

If a pupil is too ill to take part they can turn the robot's head blue, indicating they no longer wish to participate in the class.

Each robot costs £2200 and a £90 fee is charged for the 4G data link which connects it with the terminal at home.

Edinburgh City Council has said it is considering Keir's request for the robot.