Two Asda stores in South Leeds have each chosen a school in their local area to receive ten laptops as part of the supermarket’s initiative to provide over 7,000 laptops to schools across the UK to help tackle digital exclusion.
Asda Beeston nominated Ingram Road Primary School in Holbeck, whilst Asda Middleton nominated Rodillian Academy.
Although children are now returning to the classrooms, there is still a need for technology to support education activities inside the classroom, homework tasks, learning during the school holidays and to help schools future proof their home learning capabilities.
The supermarket recently formed a partnership with technology provider Dell to invest over £2 million so that every Asda store in the UK, who could donate at least 10 laptops to a school in need in their local community.
The Asda Stores nominated nearby schools who have a proportion of families struggling to access technology and each store will be arranging for delivery of the 10 laptops each of which comes with a tech bundle to support ongoing home learning activities.
Asda launched this initiative to support schools in its communities that are struggling with digital exclusion. According to Ofcom, around 9% of children in the UK – between 1.1 million and 1.8 million – do not have access to a laptop, desktop or tablet at home. These children are primarily from disadvantaged backgrounds and at risk of falling further behind with their education.
Each laptop comes with a tech bundle that includes a headset and a mobile internet dongle with a data allowance of 20gb from Asda’s network partner Vodafone. The dongle and data allowance has been funded by a separate £500,000 contribution from the retailer’s charity arm, The Asda Foundation. Laptops will also include a one-year warranty and technical support.
Each school will manage the distribution to priority pupils, and Asda’s in-house IT support team will also provide support to any school that needs help to set up the equipment.
Asda Middleton Community Champion, Rachel Cunningham said:
“I’ve a really close relationship with Rodillian Academy and I know what a massive difference this donation is going to make to the school on receiving these laptops. I’m proud that Asda can help to play a small part in helping to break down the digital barriers so they can children can continue their education remotely both now and in the future.”
Asda and Dell Technologies provided the school with brand new laptops built with best-in-class durability that makes them ideal for young learners. The education devices are used by schools, colleges and universities across the UK and its products are designed to support learning, whether that is in the classroom or in a virtual environment.
The tech bundle provided by the Asda Foundation is an extension of their support of schools with this important education initiative. During the Autumn 2020 term, the Asda Foundation awarded more than half a million pounds to hundreds of schools to ensure children could get back into the classroom. This included providing grants for everything from stationery to school uniform banks, breakfast clubs and more, to ensure no child felt excluded due to financial limitations. With the move to home learning set to continue this support will go some way to meet the increasing need for access to devices and data.
This post is based on a press release issued by Asda
