At Elworth Hall Primary School 'every child achieves because we care' and a key priority is ensuring the continued education of all our pupils regardless of the external influences life throws at us. However, this is currently being tested. As we all know the Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge affect on all aspects of life, with our children's education being one of the hardest hit.

We're sure you know that schools have to juggle lots of priorities, but do you realise that many of the changes and additional resources required within schools are costly and the school's income does not cover all these additional expenses. As a result, over the past year we have tried to adapt the way we seek to raise the much needed funds that our school needs. After many zoom meetings and emails with our school, the decision was made to raise funds for much needed I.T. equipment that the school cannot afford to purchase out of its annual budget. Pupils are presently having to share equipment between classes, which is definitely not ideal or practical in our current climate. Equipment has to be thoroughly cleaned after each use and put into quarantine before it can be used by another class. As a result, classes are unable to complete work tasks that require the usage of an iPad or laptop for internet searching or learning I.T. skills.

With much of today's educational resources being online, children need to learn these skills. But if there are not enough devices, how do the children learn? Our school has shown great resilience and creativity to manage the education and funding of its pupils, particularly through this pandemic, but sometimes the obstacles become too big to overcome alone. Therefore, we are hoping that you will help us to provide our school with the finances required to increase the I.T. infrastructure so every pupil has access to an iPad or a laptop. We want to do this by purchasing additional I.T. hardware including laptops, iPads, charging devices and in the future, virtual goggles to take interactive learning to the next level.

At present, pupils have access to 5 sets of 10 iPads and 28 laptops; that is not even a full class set! We would like to raise enough funding to purchase a minimum of 10 iPads per class, therefore an additional 20 iPads, plus at least 15 laptops so there is a full class set. Through an educational supplier and at current market conditions, which can fluctuate based on supply and demand, the prices we have been quoted for the IT equipment are as follows:

iPads @ £250 each = £5,000

Laptops @ £250 each = £3,750

iPad charging stations @ £400 (holds 10 iPads) = £800

Laptop charging cabinet @ £500 (holds 10 laptops) = £1,000

VR Goggles and charging box @ £5,995 for 15 users

Some of our children will be employed in the I.T. industry doing jobs that don't even exist yet! We need to ask ourselves, do we want our children to be part of this future? We believe that our children should and can reach their full potential and fulfil their dreams. Will you help us achieve this goal? We would be so grateful if any parents, carers, family members, the local community and businesses would be willing to contribute to our target which would go a long way to assisting our school with these purchases and to help make our children's dreams come true.

Any contribution you can make is an investment in the future of our children.

Update: February 2022

Thank you to all those who donated to this cause so far - we are very grateful for your support. We are keen to keep it going, and also to look outside the school to those who could help our great school in Elworth.

In latest news, we have received the news that Sandbach Fisheries (well known at Sandbach Market) are kindly donating £300 towards our cause: