Asda Wolverhampton donates laptops to Tettenhall school

A Black Country supermarket has donated 10 new laptops to St Michaels CE Primary School.

St Michaels CE School pupils: Nathaniel Munukwe, Vania Chahal and Tia Hyman came to say thanks along with school staff Jackey Barsnley, Victoria Hallam and Asda staff Elizabeth Dutton and Maureen Higson

Asda Wolverhampton's community champion Maureen Higginson arranged a surprise delivery of the 10 laptops to the Tettenhall-based school.

It is part of the supermarket's initiative to provide more than 7,000 laptops to schools across the UK to help tackle digital exclusion. While children are now back in the classrooms, there is still a need for technology to support education activities inside the classroom, homework tasks, learning during the school holidays and to help schools future proof their home learning capabilities.

The supermarket recently formed a partnership with technology provider Dell to invest more than £2 million so that every Asda store in the UK, including Wolverhampton could donate at least 10 laptops to a school in its local community.

Bosses at the Wolverhampton store nominated St Michaels C of E Primary, which has a proportion of families struggling to access technology. Maureen arranged for delivery of 10 laptops each of which comes with a tech bundle to support ongoing home learning activities.

Each laptop comes with a tech bundle that includes a headset and a mobile internet dongle with a data allowance of 20gb from Asda’s network partner Vodafone. The dongle and data allowance has been funded by a separate £500,000 contribution from the retailer’s charity arm, The Asda Foundation. Laptops will also include a one-year warranty and technical support.

Each school will manage the distribution to priority pupils, and Asda’s in-house IT support team will also provide support to any school that needs help to set up the equipment.

Asda Wolverhampton Community Champion, Maureen Higginson said: “I have a really close relationship with St Michaels C of E Primary and I know what a massive difference this donation is going to make to the school on receiving these laptops.

"I’m proud that Asda can help to play a small part in helping to break down the digital barriers so they can children can continue their education remotely both now and in the future.”