Bridging Portsmouth’s Digital Divide

We need your help in supporting disadvantaged families in Portsmouth – every child in this city needs to continue their education, for their future and for their wellbeing. 

The search for donated devices doesn’t stop with our Schools, we are also working in collaboration with the Hive to ensure the vulnerable people within our community have online access. Whether that’s to keep up with the news, speak to loved ones, apply for job roles or secure their weekly online food shop. Our aim is to provide as many families as possible with the luxury of a device and internet access.

Schools are now closed to all but a very small group of children, with the majority of children now having to learn at home. Portsmouth schools have made enormous strides over the last few months in developing their remote offer to pupils, developing their skills in producing live and recorded lessons, introducing welfare calls and group sessions. And using a wide range of apps to facilitate effective communication and learning between teachers, pupils and parents whilst children are not in school.

The work that the government, Portsmouth City Council and individual schools, and the Academy Trusts have done to increase access to devices mean that these arrangements generally work very well. However, the new national lockdown and closure of schools has brought a new level of challenge, with many families sharing a single device or relying on a pay as you use mobile phone to access children’s work for the day.

Below are only a few of the testimonials we have received so far from Year 11 pupils in our city. 

'It was great having a laptop to work on - I only had a phone before and the screen was broken'

'It has given me more confidence with GCSE work'

'We had a family PC before and I couldn't always get on it'

 'I can now access the learning from school at home'

'I know it will really help with revision'

'I have used it to revise for mocks'

'I have been able to catch up on some of the work I missed during previous lockdown’s'

'Yeah - it's cool, other students have asked how they can get one'

'Everyone should have one it's made a big difference'

 Next Steps:

Please make a donation of your choices and also check out more details on our Shaping Portsmouth website https://shapingportsmouth.co.uk/education_programme/digital-enablement/

Thank you from everyone involved in this project in advance for your support, your donation is going to make a huge difference in our city -  [email protected]