As part of our wide-reaching support for schools across the region, it was fantastic to be able to provide some financial assistance to St Martin's Church of England Primary School.
We contacted the school in Cranbrook, Exeter, with the offer of money to enable them to buy 20 Chrome Books so that all remaining pupils could gain access to a computer.
The donation, coupled with government funding, means St Martin’s now have enough laptops for all of their children who are either in school or learning from home.
Steph Harvey, Acting Head for St Martin’s Primary School, said: “We are delighted with the additional financial support that LiveWest has provided us which has been used to purchase 20 Chromebooks.
“This, in addition to the government’s allocation to St Martin's, has meant that we have enough devices for children at home and in school, which has been vital given that we have over 50% of our children in school at this time - over 200 pupils.
“The children have loved using the devices to share work with friends at home via google classroom, and this has been a vital link as well as google meets in class, to ensure contact is maintained with children at home.
”Teachers have provided face-to-face sessions with pupils at home, and pre-recorded lessons daily, as well as teaching the children in school, so the access to sufficient devices has also meant that their job has been eased by not having to scurry around for devices to enable children to complete work.
“LiveWest’s donation has also reassured us that, should we have to close a bubble, we would have enough devices to send home with children to maintain their engagement in learning.
“With the addition of headphone and microphone sets, children’s motivation for learning has been reinvigorated.”
Year five pupil, Jack Downing, has given a thumbs up to our donation, adding: “The laptop really helps with my writing and getting my ideas down on google docs. My mum is surprised how much work I am doing.”
The donation is part of our drive to ensure children struggling to get access to online learning are still able to access learning resources provided by schools across the region.