cotswoldjam.org - Lockdown Laptops
With schools returning to campus on Monday 8 March 2021, this hopefully marks the end of Cotswold Jam's Lockdown Laptops scheme. We gave away 60 laptops over January and February 2021. Thank-you to everyone who donated old laptops and new upgrades, you really made a difference.
I have half a dozen or so 3 laptops remaining which I am putting aside for pupils who might be required to isolate/quarantine. If they remain unclaimed by the summer then I will donate them to child education purposes. Email andrew@aoakley.com if your child is in isolation/quarantine and they need a laptop for remote learning at Tewkesbury Secondary School or one of its feeder primary schools. In the vast majority of cases, schools have now caught up wtih demand and are able to provide equipment directly; please try your school first, as their equipment will be superior to anything I can provide.
While schools are locked down, or after lockdown if a family is isolating, Cotswold Jam is refurbishing old donated laptops, and distributing them to parents of Tewkesbury pupils who need them.
For families with no broadband and no way of accessing remote learning whatsoever, and also for those who qualify for free school meals, Pupil Premium or SEN, please contact your school. You may qualify for free government equipment. Please claim it. This will be far superior to anything we can provide. It also means that our limited number of laptops are available for other families in need who don’t qualify.
Where we come in, is for "stretched middle", "just about managing" families. You must already have WiFi (wireless internet) in your house. Maybe you have one tablet or laptop, but it's being shared between several children. We may be able to help by providing an emergency, second-hand, refurbished laptop.
I need a laptop - at the moment we are only providing laptops to children in the Tewkesbury Secondary School area and associated nearby primary schools
I have a laptop or computer parts to give away - please deliver to Wheatpieces, or we can collect from GL20
I am a computer geek who wants technical details - maybe you want to help us, or provide a similar service elsewhere, or you're just plain interested
I want to give money - how about buying from our Amazon wishlist of memory & storage upgrades, to help improve old laptops? £15 buys an SSD storage drive that makes old laptops feel like new!
Thank-you.
This plan started on the 8th of January 2021. As I type at 3am on Saturday, it's just me, Andrew Oakley. At the moment I am limiting this to the Tewkesbury area, because I am just one chap. We would like to expand throughout Gloucestershire but we're not there yet and might never be.
Do not expect this service to be professional or well-organised. This is a few local computer geeks, trying to get some old laptops working, that would otherwise be sitting unused in the attics of generous local folk. To repeat: if you need a professional government-backed service, contact your school.
We are currently only covering parents of pupils at Tewkesbury School and its affiliated primaries. Other schemes covering nearby areas include:
Also see BBC Give A Laptop local radio campaign with links to many other local, regional and national schemes
Comments, errors and corrections to: admin@cotswoldjam.org
Public Domain - Andrew Oakley - 2021-03-07
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