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Remote learning 11

generous Donors helping to give the gift of education

In February, staff and students were delighted to receive ten laptops kindly gifted by the Rotary Club of
Ivybridge. Caroline Johnson, Associate leader, and Year 11 students lewis and Josh, received the laptops
from Paul Fletcher of the Ivybridge Rotary Club’s ‘online learning Project’ and Colin Beresford-Jones of
The Beresford-Jones Trust.
Rotary Clubs across the country have been collecting refurbished laptops and distributing them to schools
since the last lockdown. The ten most recent laptops are a blend of six refurbished devices and four brand
new laptops and have been gratefully received by the College.
The brand new laptops were purchased through generous donations from The Beresford-Jones Trust, which is a
Plymouth based charity, whose mission is to support the promising young people of Plymouth and the
surrounding areas, towards becoming more engaged citizens of the future.
Although the College welcomed students back to face to face learning from Monday, 8 March, it is expected
that some form of remote learning will continue for a while longer and these devices will help to support
students in the event of them having to self-isolate or learn from home.
Caroline Johnson, said, “We are incredibly grateful to Dr Paul Fletcher and the whole of the Ivybridge Rotary
Club. They have worked tirelessly to collect and refurbish these laptops and it was a wonderful surprise to also
find that four of these laptops had been purchased brand new for our students, through funding from
The Beresford-Jones Trust.”
Individual Donations from our Supportive Community

Staff and students at the College have also been overwhelmed by the kindness of individuals within our
community in donating laptops, iPads and funds to the College to support our students with remote learning.
Many of our students did not have any access at all to technology to watch and take part in their live lessons
and several, who were working from mobile phones, were finding taking part increasingly difficult without a
laptop. Many of our donors have wished to remain anonymous but we wanted to share some feedback we
have had from grateful parents:
“May I just say a massive thank you for the loan of the laptop for my son; it has been a real godsend and has
meant that he has been able to study at the same time as his sisters, while we try to do some work. This was
almost impossible before. We have been really impressed by the online live teaching. Many thanks once
again.”

“We would like to thank the College for the kind loan of a laptop. It will make a considerable difference to
my daughter’s education.”