Margate Rotary Club donates £15,000 to buy Thanet pupils laptops for home learning

Margate Rotary Club President Jeremy Voizey; Vicky Willis, Headteacher of King Ethelbert School and Rotarian Pat Buckley with one of the new Chromebooks

Margate Rotary Club has responded to a request for help to provide laptops so Thanet pupils can access home learning.

The club has been in contact with Kate Greig, chief executive of The Coastal Academy Trust, which runs King Ethelbert School, Hartsdown Academy, Dane Court Grammar School ,Royal Harbour and Cliftonville Primary School. Members agreed to fund Chromebooks for students in need.

The devices are necessary because families and their children require wifi connections for work and school.

This has placed an unenviable strain on many families and individual pupils who are desperate not to fall further behind in their coursework knowing that their assessed work grades will suffer.

The Chromebooks are likely to stay with pupils for up to two years to enable them to bridge the inevitable educational gap that Covid has caused to many young people.

Whilst secondary school pupils have been the focus of the initiative, primary schools have also been supported. The Trust has identified those in most need across the area.

The Club has already collected 36 unwanted IT devices and has agreed to provide £15,000  to buy Chromebooks specifically designed for educational purposes. These, will then be loaned to pupils.

Seventeen schools are set to receive the much-needed devices in time for the half term break as a result of Margate Rotary’s supportive action.