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Dukinfield primary school receive a wonderful surprise

Pupils at a Tameside primary school have received a technological boost following the donation of 10 laptops.

Asda Ashton Community Champion Colette Regan arranged for the surprise delivery to Lyndhurst Community Primary School in Dukinfield.

It was part of the supermarket’s national initiative to provide thousands of laptops to schools to help those children who don’t have the technology to take part in home learning.

Colette said: “I’ve a really close relationship with Lyndhurst school and I know what a massive difference this donation is going to make to both the school and to the families who will receive these laptops.

“I’m pleased Asda can help to play a small part in helping to break down the digital barriers so their children can continue their education remotely both now and in the future.”

Lyndhurst’s headteacher Gemma Patterson said the donation was a wonderful surprise.

“Our community partners have really been fantastic over the last year donating lots to our school,” she said.

“Recently we have been awarded 10 laptop bundles by the Asda Foundation after a nomination from the Asda Ashton store.

“The laptops and support bundles containing headphones, dongles and data to support children’s learning were delivered to school and they really are fantastic.

“We can’t thank Asda and Dell enough for choosing our school to receive these laptops, they will go a long way in helping to break down digital barriers and help with any education remotely now and in the future.”

Nationally Asda has provided more than 7,000 laptops to schools across the UK.   

In January, the supermarket teamed up with technology provider Dell to invest more than £2m so that every Asda store in the UK, including Asda Ashton, could donate at least 10 laptops to a school in need in their local community.

The Asda store, on Cavendish Street, nominated Lyndhurst who have a proportion of families struggling to access technology.

Colette arranged for the delivery of the laptops, each of which includes a tech bundle to support ongoing home learning activities.

The tech bundle itself 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.

The laptops 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.   

According to Ofcom, around nine per cent 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 and are at risk of falling further behind with their education.   

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.

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