In 2021, The Portal Trust awarded a Covid-19 emergency grant of £165,000.00 over three years to Stepney All Saints Church of England Secondary School to help purchase laptops for all the pupils in the school.
Read below to learn why the laptops have made such a difference to learning and inclusivity and to watch a video from the school.
Following the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown of schools across England in 2020, access to online learning and education has become even more important for students. Many pupils however don’t have access to laptops or computers at home or have to share this technology with their siblings and parents, preventing them from fully engaging in online lessons or activities. To help address this issue, The Portal Trust awarded Stepney All Saints an emergency Covid-19 grant of £165,000 in 2021 to help purchase laptops for all the students at the secondary school.
It was vital to ensure all pupils have access to high-quality learning and resources during lockdown to ensure that the gains made over recent years in closing the attainment gap for disadvantaged students were not reversed.
For the pupils at Stepney All Saints, having their laptops has helped to ensure equality of opportunity in and out of school and allowed students to develop their knowledge through additional IT resources and pre-learning tasks.
Pupils can now more easily access and complete homework activities to pre-learn about topics, enabling them to dedicate more time to analysing, applying and evaluating their knowledge within lessons. Teachers are also now able to access a range of low-stake assessment methods giving instant feedback and data, allowing them to better integrate this information into their lesson planning.
IT resources such as GCSEPod and Hegarty have been integrated into the school’s schemes of learning and students can collaborate on group projects both inside and outside of school. They can also more easily revise from past content and access schoolwork from home.
Most importantly, all students are being given the same educational opportunities both inside and outside of school.
"A Real Landmark for our Teaching and Learning Strategy"
Watch the below video to hear about how the laptops have made such a difference to teaching and learning at the school.
We at Stepney All Saints School have been committed to providing laptops for all of our students as a support aid in their education. The generous support from the Portal Trust will allow us to continue to deliver quality teaching to our students, giving opportunities to those who do not have access to a device outside of school and maximising learning and achievement for all.
Paul Woods
Head Teacher, Stepney All Saints Secondary School
We are incredibly proud to help support the pupils at Stepney All Saints Secondary School and are delighted to be able to ensure all pupils have access to the same technology and educational opportunities at home and in school.
If you would like to hear more about the difference the laptops have made for students at Stepney All Saints, click the link below to listen to more teachers and students talking about their experiences.