How ABS were able to support children to learn at home in Lockdown 3

Ofcom estimated that there were up to 1.78 million children in the UK with no home access to a laptop, desktop or tablet and whilst the Government pledged to provide support to meet this need there were significant gaps due to limited resources and strict eligibility criteria.  This meant that many of our beneficiaries who did not meet the criteria missed out.  Architectural professionals with children, now largely working from home were also facing the prospect of sharing a device with their children. This situation was more acute where there was more than one child.

The  ABS Welfare Team came up with the idea of offering support with the cost of a basic laptop as well as connectivity costs as a means of helping existing beneficiaries to overcome practical and financial barriers to online learning.  We also felt that by supporting children to learn at home in this way, for however long teaching remained online we could do our bit to address digital exclusion amongst our beneficiary families.  We needed to respond quickly to a situation which had the potential to be extended from a few weeks to a few months with the risk of this impacting on children’s long-term education and life chances.

Looking at our beneficiary group we identified families with school-age children who might benefit from some support with the cost of a laptop and associated connectivity costs.  As we had already looked at household finances as part of our grant-giving we agreed that the only criteria was that the family should already be receiving a monthly grant towards living expenses from the Society and we also suggested that parents of children who might be eligible for help from their school look into this.

ABS  provided financial support for the purchase of 16 laptops to support children to learn at home. Having researched devices which would meet the needs for children’s’ remote learning, we placed a limit of £250 for each purchase. With varying amounts of guidance and support we were able to meet every request for help with purchasing an appropriate device to everyone who felt that their children needed it.

From our beneficiaries…

“The ABS laptop scheme came at the right time for us and enabled our daughter to study from home while we each continued to work under restrictions. We can’t thank ABS enough for kindly offering us the scheme to help take the edge off under national restrictions.”

“We really appreciate ABS purchasing a laptop for us to use to complete our school coursework during the lockdown. We have been able to fully participate and interact with our teachers and classmates rather than just completing written exercises set via email and post. The Laptop has made a great difference to our learning experience and we wish to say thank you to ABS for their help and support. Thank you also for saving us from Dad’s old and very slow laptop!” ~ Evie and Elliott, Architectural Assistant’s Family from Cheshire

“The insightful, generous and compassionate gift of a laptop made such an incredible difference to our whole family. The positive impact has in fact been profound as one of the major challenges of homeschooling was managing the various demands of each family member whilst having limited (or inappropriate) resources to do so. For an organisation to be so conscientious and seek a way to remedy what was such an unforeseen challenge for most families, was an incredible blessing for us. We will always be forever grateful to all at the ABS for making this possible.” ~ Architect from Surrey

“Many thanks for all the help and support the ABS has provided, especially during these difficult times. With the notebook you provided to my daughter she has managed to keep in touch with her cousins and friends, attend online schooling, submit tasks to Purplemash, send pictures of creations, read us a Twinkle story most nights, and allayed cabin fever. Without fear she can navigate the children’s pages and websites, and inform us what’s important and new on the net for Year 1 and is already giving us lessons in IT, in shortcuts, and Legoland.” ~ Architectural Assistant from Suffolk and his daughter, Holly

A thank you note from Holly