Despite the incredible generosity of donations from individuals and local industry, we knew that many students still wouldn’t be equipped with the tools needed for online learning as we headed into Lockdown 3.

Since March 2020 we know that some adults, children and young people have been doing online schoolwork, learning English, working through work-related courses and even studying the programming language of Python using a shared mobile phone. However, the government’s guidance of five hours of live lessons each day for secondary-aged students took away any flexibility for those families. This January’s announcement impacted on households who had previously juggled limited digital access with asynchronous learning, and they suddenly found themselves in another situation where not every child could access online learning when they needed it.

Bishop Young Academy is one of the schools in Leeds where we’ve been working closely with the leadership team to help them support students with digital access. During each phase of the pandemic we’ve responded to their referral for repurposed laptops to distribute in their own community.

“Thanks to Digital Access West Yorkshire for matching us with Jet Aire, the Aberford based company. Together we can ensure that all our students have access to their online learning and ultimately supporting to narrow the digital divide.”  – Vice Principal, Emily Kempthorne

The academy has also recently received an additional 10 new Chromebooks via this partnership with us and Jet Aire. You can read the full article here.

“Digital Access West Yorkshire is doing some fantastic work to bridge the gap for households that don’t have access to the technology and resources they need. We welcomed the opportunity to work with them and play our part in supporting their efforts in making a difference to our local community.” – Jet Aire Services Managing Director, Darren Pavan

 

Header image by Olena Sergienko on Unsplash