Pupils from two West Cumbrian schools are benefiting
from a new scheme that reuses redundant IT equipment from the
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).
In a bid to support the educational needs of local students, the
NDA has donated 45 laptops in a first for the organisation.
Solway Community School, at Silloth, and Beacon Hill School,
Aspatria, were given the equipment so pupils who, would otherwise
struggle to access technology, could continue with their learning
both at school and at home.
The initiative is also designed to help make a difference to
disadvantaged pupils in the community or those who wouldn’t
otherwise have access to appropriate IT equipment.
Frank Rainford, Group Director of Security and Corporate Services
at the NDA, said:
We are delighted to see so many young people benefit from our
IT equipment. The laptops will offer additional support to
students during these challenging times and will ensure they
can continue with their learning remotely.
Our commitment to supporting the communities in which we
operate is hugely important to us and we hope this initiative
will continue to inspire pupils in their education, ensuring no
pupil misses out on an opportunity to learn.
Around 100 laptops in total have been earmarked for donation to
local students, as the scheme develops.
The equipment, which has had all the data erased by specialist IT
recycling contractors, had been used by NDA employees in their
work towards achieving the mission of cleaning up 17 of the UK’s
oldest nuclear sites.
Judith Schafer, Executive Headteacher for the two schools, added:
It has become vitally important that our students can continue
learning remotely. This has been a steep learning curve for
teachers and students, made more complex for some of our
students who face extra educational barriers because of limited
access to appropriate ICT equipment.
The laptops provided by the NDA will give these students the
quality equipment and support they need to ensure they are able
to continue their education remotely where necessary.
The donated equipment has also allowed some of the pupils to
access additional remote learning support, provided through the
NDA’s nucleargraduates programme.
An eight-strong team of graduates have been offering online
tutoring sessions to support year 11 pupils, who could go on to
become the next generation of nuclear professionals.
The scheme has been so well received that a full year group from
Beacon Hill School took up the graduates’ offer of extra learning
support, in subjects including science, technology, engineering
and maths.
The scheme will run until September 2021.
