Students across East Kent have been receiving laptops for home learning thanks to a Top up to teach’ scheme.
The project is the brain child of former Parliamentary candidate for Dover, Charlotte Cornell. As a teacher Charlotte was concerned about students who didn’t have access to laptops or tablets to enable them to continue home based learning. So she set up ‘top up to teach’ People are invited to donate unused or unwanted laptops and tablets to the scheme. The devices are then reset with new software and distributed to local schools and pupils to enable them to continue learning at home.
Charlotte said: “This has been an amazing community effort and I am so grateful for each laptop, each donation and the volunteers who have given their time to get them out to families who need them.
“We’ve got out nearly 300 refurbished, wiped laptops throughout East Kent in 4 weeks and that means so many more children are now able to access their online lessons – this sort of thing changes lives, helping families who can’t afford the technology needed to stay in touch with e-learning. I’m thrilled the project has been such a success.”
Ramsgate Councillor Karen Constantine offered her time to volunteer and has distributed to two Thanet schools. Requests from isle families are also being processed.
She said: “We know that so many young people are in families across Thanet who simply can’t afford to buy new laptops. We’ve had several laptops donated. These are being reset ready for distribution. I’ve been pleased to help Charlotte distribute 40 of these to local primary schools.”
Charlotte urges people to make a donation to the just giving page and Karen can be contacted if any student needs a laptop or Thanet residents have a spare one to donate.
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/top-up-to-teach?utm_term=NpY3N37Na