No child is to be left behind says edtech charity LGfL
As the Omicron variant surges and schools nationwide prepare for further disruption, potential closures, and a possible return to remote teaching and learning in 2022, edtech charity LGfL-The National Grid for Learning is once again stepping up support by offering thousands of Chromebooks, procured as part of its successful #BridgeTheDivide initiative, below-cost, to help schools ensure no child is left behind during this terrible pandemic. For what is believed to be a first for the UK education market, Chromebooks will be available from just £99.99. “How have we done this?,” said John Jackson, CEO, LGfL. “We’ve been using funds raised from other initiatives and ploughed them back into education.”
“You might think that below-cost devices would be as far as one charity could go, but we have once again gone one step further by providing buy-now pay-later options,” said John. “Schools purchasing devices can now choose to be invoiced in April 2022. Our thinking is this would help those in areas of deprivation to achieve the learner-to-device ratios they require, without the financial constraints of an upfront bill.”
By increasing learner-to-device ratios, these Chromebooks offer significant benefits not just in relation to the continued learning through remote methods, but also for everyday opportunities to teach and learn in different and more effective ways. They build students’ digital literacy skills and independent learning and enable schools to adopt a hybrid approach to teaching and learning, as schools like Whitefield Primary School in Liverpool found.
“As the Headteacher, the impact of working with LGfL over the last two years has been very significant,” said Jill Wright, Whitefield Primary School. “We felt safe in the knowledge that we were getting best value and used the #BridgeTheDivide scheme to secure Chromebooks for all our children in years four, five and six. It also meant that we had access to a wide variety of online tools too, which had a very positive impact on the teaching and learning in school.
“When children were forced to work remotely we were also able to provide extra devices to families with multiple children, provide access to teaching and learning, prevent the children from feeling isolated, help them avoid discord with their siblings and support their parents. We could see who was logging on, ensure that they were safe, chat to them online, send their work back to them and maintain a good relationship with the children and their families.”
LGfL’s initiative is not just about providing the lowest cost devices for schools and students, but providing a holistic approach to tackling the digital inequalities exacerbated by this ongoing pandemic. Through its partnership with Google, LGfL has been able to provide free on-demand live support to give educators the opportunity to acquire the skills required to harness the full capabilities and effectiveness of cloud-based teaching and learning via Chromebooks.
Through its #BridgeTheDivide initiative LGfL has already delivered over 200,000 new and recycled devices to schools, at a fraction of the cost of the government’s scheme, saving schools an estimated £7M to date. Most importantly, it has enabled children to learn and progress in spite of the pandemic.
“There are 4.3 million children living in poverty in the UK – we simply cannot sit and watch the 18 month attainment gap between the haves and have nots widen further,” said John, who is urging Local Authorities in areas of high deprivation to fund laptops for children who do not have access to remote teaching and learning at home.
“It’s time that we all stand together to help schools during this continuing crisis and the devastation and growing social divide that it creates, to build brighter futures for ‘all’ our young people,” said John Jackson.
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