Lockdown Laptops

During the last lockdown, I was proud to be part of a group of like minded individuals that could see that school closures, albeit necessary due to Covid, were suffering with a lack of IT kit.

So we put out a call to the public to donate any old kit that they had I drawers or cupboards.

The goal was to try and get 100 devices to Pupil Premium kids so that they would not get left behind.

We got all kinds of devices, laptops, computers, tablets, even some older iPads.

We beat the target within 3 weeks.

I personally swapped out old hard drives for SSD’s, upgraded RAM, repaired a couple of screens, got them installed with Windows 10 where there was a COA even if it was a windows 7 COA as these licences worked with Windows 10.

Those with no COA were installed with Mint Linux, all had a version of Office installed, mostly Libre or Open Office and Microsoft Teams.

I had the pleasure of handing devices over to the primary school that I went to as a child. Underwood West, in Crewe.

Big shout out to the public for their kind donations.

it was a great project to be involved with and would welcome a similar project.