About

Like many schools across the country, The John Roan School finds itself in need of vital IT equipment. Many of our students are struggling to access remote learning. While we work to address this issue in a number of ways, for many the issue starts and stops with lack of access to a computer. As the lock down continues, the situation evolves: it’s becoming more difficult for families to continue online learning with no, or only one, computer per household. Smartphones are not a sustainable solution.

The school has been working tirelessly to distribute what we have, and to get to grips with the government funding offers, but there is clearly still much work that needs to be done. We remain conscious that a number of our students are missing out on education at a critical time in their development. We need to bridge our digital divide.

A new Chromebook costs around £240, but we have secured a generous offer from The John Roan Foundation to price match our fundraising. This means that a new Chromebook can be bought for every £120 raised by our community.

These Chromebooks will be owned by the school and, after lockdown ends, will be a valuable resource for short term loans, catch up initiatives, and to support students' learning in the classroom as they transition back to school.

THE 120 CHALLENGE

Our amazing parents, staff and students have pledged to complete challenges along the theme of ‘120’ in order to us get to our target. You can learn more about the challenges we've set ourselves by visiting: www.thejohnroanschool.org.uk

This fundraising is crucial for our community. Without this money, we worry that the education gap will widen further during lockdown. We can’t let that happen.

To keep up with how we’re getting on, or to get in touch if you’d like to help fundraise for us, find us on Twitter @TheJohnRoan

“Having a laptop to do schoolwork is amazing. It motivates me to complete school work and helps a lot. It's a lot easier to manage than a smartphone because it has a bigger screen, desktop displays, faster connection and overall, it’s just fun to draft Powerpoints and work documents. It's easier to access textbooks online for different classes and a lot less time consuming.” - A year 10 student who recently received a laptop from The John Roan School.

Donations are gratefully received. Thank you so much for your incredible generosity, community spirit and support.

The JRSA is now a registered charity. Please select 'Gift Aid' as you donate and ask the government to help top us up. Suggested donation amounts: £5 / £10 /£20 /£60 / £120 (the price of one laptop to support a child's learning)

Please note that unfortunately second-hand devices cannot be accepted by our school, as often they don’t support newer operating systems and require a huge amount of attention from our IT team before they can be sent out.

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