Dear Sir,
As a result of the newly imposed lockdown, home-schooling is now the norm and it looks likely to be this way for a while. Our local schools are doing a marvellous job providing remote teaching and setting work to be undertaken on-line. Unfortunately, some of our less fortunate families lack the ability to access the full range of teaching, because of resource issues. They may not have the laptops/tablets/smart phones in the household to enable their children to access learning.
The local school, for which I’m a Governor, has 120 children qualifying for pupil premium-top up funding. This means the school gets extra funding from the government to help them improve the attainment of their disadvantaged pupils, although this funding does not cover the cost of IT equipment. Evidence shows that children from disadvantaged backgrounds:
• generally face extra challenges in
reaching their potential at school
• often do not perform as well as their peers
(source – Dept. of Education).
Despite the number of disadvantaged children, the school in question has received only 30 laptops/tablets from central government to help support home learning. In some homes two or three children are sharing a smart phone to access schooling because this is the only device available. No child should be left behind for lack of basic resources to allow them to actively participate in the excellent home schooling provision being provided by our local education establishments. The challenges facing this particular school is not an isolated case and there are 11 schools in Great Aycliffe.
I would like to ask fellow Newtonians, and our local businesses, if they have any spare laptops, iPads, or android tablets, that are serviceable but no longer used, that they would be willing to donate to our local schools? Any help and assistance to this worthy cause will be gratefully received.
To donate any items for use by local children, please contact:
jed.hillary@btinternet.com
or telephone 07552 758148
Cllr Jed Hillary.
