How are families on low incomes managing home education when they may not have a device?

[FortunesFave]

Are we going to see an even bigger gap between the people with the least and everyone else? I know there are families with no laptop or PC...few resources and sometimes no electricity.

How on earth are they coping? For those kids, school's a break...a place where there's always a snack and always a lunch.

Not sure of the exact model or data package but our families are getting something like this:
www.vodafone.co.uk/mobile-broadband/pay-monthly-contracts/mobile-wifi/vodafone/r219-mobile-wi-fi-hotspot

You can get a cheap but fully-functional full desktop PC setup for absolute peanuts nowadays. These are second hand ex-business machines:

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FAST-CHEAP-WiFi-DUAL-CORE-i3-WINDOWS-10-PC-DESKTOP-COMPUTER-FULL-SET-UP-OPTION/313012995739?hash=item48e107469b:g:3LIAAOSw2T9eWQIy

Collection of resources on donating tech for these purposes here (you don't need to be on twitter, but may need to access the link using a browser)

twitter.com/TechForUK/status/1346206622247432192

Our children aren't exactly "vulnerable" however money is very very tight (even tho we both work) and so the loss of school lunches (infant aged kids) and snacks and equipment is huge to us.

We don't even have WiFi at home we use our mobiles and we have one "tablet" that's about 10 years old and doesn't work very well.

Maybe because we aren't on benefits or come under the social services radar we've been offered nothing but as keyworkers amour 5 year old goes to school 3 days and the baby is in nursery.

It's not people that don't get tones of different benefits and have social services involvement and the really well off ones who have everything

It's the people who are inbetween that suffer

It's like tax credits and Uc they assume you are working and ok whereas in reality I'd probably be better off staying home but I love my job and its nice to do something that makes a difference to others

Vodafone were offering schools dongles to give to pupils, but I don't think it was very well publicised!

They are a few electronic devices to lend out, but surprise surprise government has been slow to roll this out properly.

I think I would take the punishment for no tv licence, though I doubt they will be making house calls at the mo, and many dont pay for it anyway!

Also to access children's tv online, you just have to click yes I have a tv licence, don't need to register.

I don't think live lessons are right, pre recorded yes, but live and expectation for all children to be here at x time is not really workable for wfh families or multi sibling families.

I have one ageing laptop and 2 children. I told the school that I will have to decide which childs lesson takes priority over the other and timeshare the laptop.
They got back to me saying they may be able to loan me a chromebook.
This morning I will let my year 5 use our laptop as I figured he has less time overall to catch up than the year 2.
Hopefully the school come back to me about the chromebook very soon.
It is difficult and very worrying.

@thedancingbear to a lot of people that may not be peanuts.

If families can't access things online (sometimes just lending them tech isn't the answer either) then schools should be providing paper packs and phone support.

This is what we've done with a small number of cases. Packs every 2 weeks with 10x maths, 10xenglish, 10 assorted other subjects. Exercise books, reading books, pencil case and a board game.

TAs based at home ring them every other day and let us know when a new pack is needed. It isn't perfect but at least it's something.

[quote AxMan76]This could help.

BBC from Monday

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55552962[/quote]
TV is £12 a month, broadband £20? Not everyone has a TV licence either, though if it's on both it should reach more children at least.

Low income only? We live in a naice area - middle incomes, but are stretched to fuck and worried about losing our jobs due to CV.

We have a work laptop each. No other devices apart from an old kindle tablet that doesn’t access google meet for lessons. Those work laptops are for working so currently my two won’t be using online lessons. We can not afford 2 laptops to be sat round doing nothing post covid. I feel sick to the stomach about it all.

[quote thedancingbear]You can get a cheap but fully-functional full desktop PC setup for absolute peanuts nowadays. These are second hand ex-business machines:

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FAST-CHEAP-WiFi-DUAL-CORE-i3-WINDOWS-10-PC-DESKTOP-COMPUTER-FULL-SET-UP-OPTION/313012995739?hash=item48e107469b:g:3LIAAOSw2T9eWQIy[/quote]
There are people scrambling behind the sofa for every 5p to cobble together a loaf of bread and women seen regularly at food banks who are actually starving as they give their own share of the food in the house to their children so the kids don't starve.

These women have already accessed their credit for previous emergencies or been financially abused by an ex with bills put in their name, so they don't have a line of credit to use either. Paying off credit and meeting the demands of bailiffs and local loan sharks (previously used to pay for food and heating bills) takes up any spare cash they have.

But, yeah, peanuts for a 2nd hand computer.

@thedancingbear to a lot of people that may not be peanuts.

But, relatively speaking, for a device, it is. I know that £60 is a material amount to lots of people. But the are likely to be saving money on transport etc. during the lockdown so I think it is only the very, very poorest families who will not be able to muster this kind of money to support their kids' education. For those families, I think it's fine that there should be a very limited number of devices available to loan (actually, I think the government should do much more to pull them out of poverty, but what can you do). Everyone else really should be able to scrape up £60 for a cheap device.

^Low income only? We live in a naice area - middle incomes, but are stretched to fuck and worried about losing our jobs due to CV.

We have a work laptop each. No other devices apart from an old kindle tablet that doesn’t access google meet for lessons. Those work laptops are for working so currently my two won’t be using online lessons. We can not afford 2 laptops to be sat round doing nothing post covid. I feel sick to the stomach about it all.^

If you're middle income and in a naice area, you can stomach up £120 for a couple of cheap PCs, rather than expect for people with less than you to pay for newer and more expensive devices.

It's hard for everyone atm, and your position is much better than many others'

My friends school is providing devices and dongles to kids who need it. But there are still those without anywhere to actually sit with a laptop other than their beds.

On offer from our school...
Laptops for older pupils (limited number, you apply and those with most points will get them)
Sim cards with data
Paper work packs

All learning designed to be flexible on timing, so it can be done on shared devices. When reading about these State schools with all day online lessons I do wonder about those with limited access.

@thedancingbear speak to your school, they may very well be able to help with devices. We've given school iPads out on loan to families like yours.

Scotland here and our area has provided them to all, needed or not. From I think primary four up to all secondary. Was a bit of an outcry at time re cost when not everyone needed them.

We delivered a big box of food per child for the week for their free school meal as well as a school laptop for these children. Many pupil premium children who we’re worried about have been called personally to be offered school places. Some families have said no. All children at home will be phoned daily by a staff member and video called 1:1 twice a week on top of welfare calls where the staff member goes to the child’s house to check in with the family in person. This is a heck of a lot of work and these children have certainly not been forgotten about at my school.

@thedancingbear speak to your school, they may very well be able to help with devices. We've given school iPads out on loan to families like yours.

I think you've misread my posts. I think it's outrageous that schools are giving free ipads (at a few hundred quid a pop, which come back broken, if at all) on demand to middle income families, out of general taxation, when cheap and perfectly serviceable ex-business devices are available for far, far less.

Our school in Scotland has provided a chromebook to every child. They were using them even while in school.

[quote thedancingbear]You can get a cheap but fully-functional full desktop PC setup for absolute peanuts nowadays. These are second hand ex-business machines:

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FAST-CHEAP-WiFi-DUAL-CORE-i3-WINDOWS-10-PC-DESKTOP-COMPUTER-FULL-SET-UP-OPTION/313012995739?hash=item48e107469b:g:3LIAAOSw2T9eWQIy[/quote]
Thats not peanuts if you can't afford to feed your children or have electric. Even £5 is too much for some families to find as an extra expense. Then you have the Internet cost as well.

@MrsWombat

At my school they are either coming into school as vulnerable or we've got funding to give them ipads and a internet dongle. We've got enough for every family that has needed them.

This so good to see.

Thats not peanuts if you can't afford to feed your children or have electric. Even £5 is too much for some families to find as an extra expense. Then you have the Internet cost as well.

I agree and I've recognised that. It's a scandal that there are families in this position and I blame the tories. My beef is with posters like @StubbleTurnips, who are better off than many, whose attitude is basically 'fuck that, I'm not buying two cheap devices for my kids' education, someone else can pay for them'. And these people then take support away from those who really need it.

Our school were able to print worksheets off for my nieces every week during the last lockdown.

This time round their mum has a laptop which was donated to her via a toddler group she volunteers for, many new laptops were bought for parents in need who attend the group. The only problem now is she still doesn't have access to a printer!

The last lockdown we struggled without a printer, editing worksheets online and uploading them which was a huge pain. Luckily we were able to borrow a printer until lockdown ended. Now schools are closed again I ordered a printer of our own to be delivered today, I didn't know that apparently most households have one 😣

@StubbleTurnips

Low income only? We live in a naice area - middle incomes, but are stretched to fuck and worried about losing our jobs due to CV.

We have a work laptop each. No other devices apart from an old kindle tablet that doesn’t access google meet for lessons. Those work laptops are for working so currently my two won’t be using online lessons. We can not afford 2 laptops to be sat round doing nothing post covid. I feel sick to the stomach about it all.

You don't HAVE to have laptops...PCs are fine.