Oak View Primary and Nursery school have been granted an award to convert 25 school laptops into Chromebooks. This will enable them to be used in the homes of their vulnerable children who are not currently able to access the online elements of the school’s home learning provision.
Susan Wombwell (Deputy Headteacher) explained the need for the conversions very clearly:
We are a school with a high percentage of Pupil Premium children 29.7% and 17.6% SEN in two form entry primary school. Initially, a group of twenty-five children will benefit from the award but our plan is to alternate the provision to provide greater access to more vulnerable children. The children we refer to are being provided paper copies of the learning activities set by teachers but they are missing out on the direct daily contact they can have with their teachers and peers through our school learning platform. These children include pupil premium children and low ability children who we have been working in school so hard to close the gap and are concerned on the effects the school closure is having on them both mentally and academically.
As vital as the lockdown provision is, we may still have struggled to get the bid past our very important longevity of benefits criteria. However, Susan addressed this potential issue in her bid:
Once the school reopens these new Chromebooks will continue to be available for our vulnerable children to support in enriching their learning experiences and closing the gap between them and their peers.
We hope Herts IT can convert the laptops quickly so the vulnerable pupils can start to close the learning gap as soon as possible and start to reap the wellbeing benefits of contact with their teacher and classmates.
School Feedback
I am delighted to inform you that the laptops have been successfully turned into Chromebooks. The speed at which they open and connect is amazing compared to how they were operating prior to the conversion. It has truly put a new life into them. Parents were so appreciative when I phoned them to explain that we were now able to provide them with a Chromebook for their child's home learning. It will make an enormous difference to how they can engage with their learning and allow the link with their class teacher and peers through the use of Google Classroom.
Thank you so much for enabling this to happen; it really is appreciated