Itoje and rugby laptop push for pupils at home
Maro Itoje put his weight behind ensuring all children have the use of a laptop at home, using his 260,000 Instagram and 90,000 Twitter followers to put pressure on Government, the Rugby Football Union and community rugby clubs have been gathering laptops and tablets to help.
Itoje, who was inspired by Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford’s food poverty campaign, was educated at Harrow and said: “The absolute priority right now is guaranteeing children have devices to learn. When they go back to school we need a review on access to laptops to support careers in a digitally-driven world.”
With significant additional challenges faced by disadvantaged children during the pandemic and Government lockdowns, the rugby family, already supporting hard-pressed charities, the NHS and food banks, has asked for tech donations. Estimates say as many as a million school pupils are struggling to access lessons at home because they don’t have the equipment needed.
At Twickenham Stadium, working with England Rugby’s hardware disposal firm ASECCA, a fund gathered from previously unwanted laptops and earmarked to benefit the local community, has been used to provide an initial 50 refurbished laptops ready for use for pupils in Richmond and Hounslow boroughs. More laptops will follow.
These are being delivered to Richmond’s Athletic Ground drop-off point, which has been widely advertised throughout the area. Richmond Rugby have already received 511 donations of devices which have been wiped clean, updated and refurbished by their project partner Veritas Digital Services. These have gone to local schools for distribution to students and their families for education at home.
England Rugby partners have also been busy helping, with Greene King based in Bury St Edmunds donating 110 laptops to schools across its community in Suffolk, giving them to the children most in need through the Unity Schools Partnership.
Simplyhealth have gifted 200 Chromebook laptops to support local schools and families with online home schooling, delivering them to The Longmeadow Centre at Romsey Community Services for families across the Test Valley.
Esher RFC’s Laptop Initiative to Help Schoolchildren at Home quickly gathered 20 laptops once an appeal went out. These are being professionally wiped and new operations and software installed by the club’s Under 14s Head Coach Richard Hayler who has delivered the first laptops to a local school for pupils needing them for their schooling.
In Solihull, in the West Midlands, the Camp Hill club RugbySafe Coordinator, Julie Nicholas, appealed for any laptops or tablets to serve families for both the club’s online fitness training sessions and for donation to the Home Schooling Programme. People donating or needing a device can contact Julie in confidence and “We can arrange collection of unwanted devices, prepare them and deliver to those that require them. We will of course do this in line with government travel guidance observing social distancing,” she said.
Medway RFC, based in Rochester, tweeted: “Help us tackle the digital divide in Medway” asking for donations. They have also set up gofundme to help prepare laptops and tablets which are to be re-homed.
Cambridge RUFC are also operating a laptop and tablet drop-off at their Grantchester Road ground. Once devices are wiped clean and updated by Enlightened IT, they will be distributed to school pupils and local care homes.
