Following the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown of schools across England in 2019, 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.

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.

To hear more about the difference that the laptops have made for students at Stepney All Saints, please see the video below to hear Paul Woods the Headteacher of the school and his students talking about their experiences.