Two local charities team up to provide £20K worth of laptops and tablets for school children in the Royal Borough

Both charities have contributed £10,000 each to fund the supply of tablets and laptops for children in families who do not have appropriate IT equipment at home to enable online learning to happen.

The Royal Albert Institute Fund, which promotes education and the study of literature, science and the fine arts through the form of grants to individuals and organisations in Windsor and Eton, has teamed up with The Prince Philip Trust Fund for the initiative.

The £20,000 fund will be distributed to a range of schools across the Royal Borough.  Each school or school cluster will own the equipment and will be loaned out to pupils in need.  Each school will be responsible for the procurement, allocation and use of the equipment.

Linda Aitken, Secretary to the Royal Albert Institute said: “The Covid-19 pandemic is certainly hitting some residents in our community harder than others, and the disruption to children’s learning is no different.

“We are delighted that, through this initiative, we are able to support local children to get online and keep learning.”

Dame Marcia Twelftree, Trustee from The Prince Philip Trust Fund and ex-Head Teacher of Charters School in Sunningdale, said:

“Schools across the Royal Borough are doing a great job, rising to the challenge of helping their pupils to continue their education online during this difficult time.  However, there are a small number of pupils who simply cannot access that education because of the lack of IT equipment at home.

“We hope that this grant will help prevent some children from being left behind in their learning, and provide a resource for schools that they can continue to use in the future.”

The Prince Philip Trust Fund has allocated £10,000 to this initiative from its ‘Covid-19 Relief Fund’ which has been made available recently through the drawing down upon its capital reserves to support local charities, projects or community groups that are specially working to support local residents to deal with the fall out from the Covid-19 crisis.

Applications for funds remain open and can be made here and should include specific details about what the funding is for and should be marked “Covid-19 Emergency” and submitted as soon as possible within the next six weeks.