Gloucestershire: 'Vital' charity donation supports home schooling

The £500,000 donation can be spent on equipment, data and connectivity to allow children from all disadvantaged backgrounds to study from home

An educational charity has donated £500,000 to support remote learning for disadvantaged children.

Schools will be able to purchase equipment such as laptops using the funds from The Ernest Cook Trust.

Fairford Primary School, near Cirencester in Gloucestershire, is one of the schools to benefit.

Headteacher Julie Fellows said: "I can't begin to stress how vital receiving funding to purchase additional devices is to our school."

The Ernest Cook Trust's chief executive, Dr Victoria Edwards, said she made the donation after hearing about the BBC's Make a Difference initiative.

Dr Victoria Edwards is the chief executive of Gloucestershire-based educational charity The Ernest Cook Trust

"I was struck by how urgent this is. Having access to the internet so that you can attend school online with your classmates is essential for pupils.

"Knowing schools needed someone to act quickly, our trustees gave instant approval to redirect half a million pounds.

"Schools are best placed to decide how to spend the awards and which pupils are in most need. Teachers have enough on their plate without having to find funds for the basics to support learning," she said.

Ms Fellows said that sourcing enough devices to deliver online learning for pupils had been a challenge.

'Ongoing difficulty'

"Remote learning has proved an immense challenge for schools and for families during the pandemic. Having enough devices in order to deliver on-line learning to our children has been an ongoing difficulty.

"I can't begin to stress how transformative it will be to the learning we can provide now and in the future. Additional devices mean no child will be left behind in this."

Dr Edwards added: "Having access to a laptop or a tablet is not a luxury, it's as fundamental as having a pencil case when most of us were at school."