When we were told in January that all students would be accessing their full timetable from home, we instantly knew that we would need to support some of our families with the technology to enable them to achieve that. Within the first couple of weeks we had given out every laptop we could from our current school stock, and there was still a waiting list.
We needed to act fast, so we called on our community via social media to see if there were any local businesses or groups that would ‘Sponsor a Laptop’. We thought if we got another couple we would be doing well. Within two weeks, we had financial support of nearly £13,000 on its way! This enabled us to instantly purchase 25 more laptops that arrived and went straight out to students. We are now processing another order for more that will help us keep our stock up here for our vulnerable and key worker children who are still attending school each day, and as a backup for any other families at home until we can have everyone back here again.
I’m sure we speak on behalf of all those families, when we say a massive thank you to our community who stepped up when we needed them to ensure that every student had the same chance to take part in their online learning and keep up with work.
To date, along with equipment received from government, we have given out on loan around 140 laptops to THS students and those of our Federation school, Heathcoat Primary.
We will continue to support families all we can until we can have students back with us, which we all hope will be as soon as safely possible!
Thank you again from all of the staff at THS who are working hard to keep our community together while we are apart.