29/10/2020

Before the end of the Autumn term each mainstream school in Cardiff will be supplied with a batch of new Chromebook devices equivalent to a full year group of pupils within their school. In total 10,000 new devices will be distributed to schools across the city. This will assistschools in the delivery of online and blended learning, whilst children may be affected by absence due to COVID-19.

In the next few weeks, 4,800 Chromebooks will delivered to schools with the remainder to be delivered towards the end of November. 

This is in addition to the 6,500 digital devices and 2,000 4G broadband devices that have already beenprovided to children and young people in Cardiff who have been identified as digitally deprived and 3,000 digital devices provided to teaching staff,since the beginning of the first national lockdown in March.

Cabinet Member for Education, Employment and Skills, Cllr Sarah Merry said: "Absence from school due to COVID-19 means that pupils will need to receive their education through a blended learning approach which combines online educational materials with traditional classroom methods. It is therefore essential that pupils and our workforce have access to good digital provision.

"Requirements around self-isolating and issues caused by local or fire breaker lockdowns means that there is an overall increase in demand for digital devices so bysignificantly increasing in the supply of devices to schools, we hope to help address the needs of Cardiff's children and young people.

"Ensuring that all children have access to digital provision has been part of a long term strategy for Cardiff, due to be put in place later this year but was brought forward by the needs created during the pandemic. This long term solution means that all children and young people are presented with the same opportunities and will not miss out on learning delivered online."