SCHOOLS in Wiltshire are being urged to apply to a fund that will help disadvantaged children gain access to laptops and tablets enabling them to learn at home.

Sovereign Housing Association has supported the Greenham Trust’s Laptops for Lockdown Learning fund with a £25,000 donation.

The donation will be partially matched and additionally boosted to a total of £47,500 to be split between Greenham Trust’s area of operation in west Berkshire and north Hampshire and across the rest of Sovereign’s area from Oxfordshire to the Isle of Wight.

The Newbury-based housing association’s own fund will support schools that apply directly via The Good Exchange, across the other regions that it covers, including Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Isle of Wight, Bristol, Dorset and Devon.

It will give disadvantaged children access to laptops so they can learn from home during the Covid-19 lockdown. According to figures from Ofcom, around nine per cent of children in the UK - between 1.1 and 1.8 million - do not have access to a laptop, desktop or tablet at home.

Most students in need use parents’ mobile phones, often on pay as you go, costing up to £100 a day to access data, or have to share devices with siblings who are also learning remotely.

In some cases, children go without access to any device at all, severely hampering their ability to learn and widening the gap between households that have and those that have not still further.

Andrew Cooper, head of business development and fundraising for Sovereign, said: “Our contribution to the Greenham Trust fund will help schools across west Berkshire and north Hampshire to buy laptops, tablets and digital devices for disadvantaged primary and secondary school pupils.“We’ve chosen to give in this way because Greenham Trust doubles every donation made, thanks to match funding, making the money go further.

"Digital inclusion is a key priority for Sovereign and we want to support our communities with home schooling in lockdown.”

Chris Boulton, chief executive officer for Greenham Trust, said: “The pandemic has shone a stark light on the gap in provision for families in lockdown, but we must make sure this gap doesn’t continue to grow.

"Whilst the government nationally and locally are working hard to support schools in a quickly evolving situation there is clearly a need to provide additional help.

"We believe responsibility now falls on the voluntary sector and local community to ensure that disadvantaged children do not fall through the cracks when it comes to continuing their education during these difficult times.”

Sam Dart, head of customer Digital Technologies for Sovereign, added: “In addition to providing laptops for our customers, at Sovereign we’ve also opened up a laptop lending scheme for our employees too. We’ve got 100 laptops available to loan to any families in need of support to get their children online.”

If you are a school that has identified families who don’t have access to laptops, tablets or other devices to enable their children to learn from home, please apply online at: https://thegoodexchange.com/laptops/