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John Bishop donates 100 laptops to his old school to help students learn at home
‘In 2021 our children deserve to be educated properly’
Comedian John Bishop has donated 100 laptops to his old school to help kids learn from home in the pandemic.
Children in schools and colleges across England have been told to learn at home until mid-February due to the national lockdown.
All children except those of key workers and vulnerable pupils must learn at home, however concerns have risen due to a lack of suitable devices to learn on for remote study.
More than 1.3 million laptops and tablets have been made available to students, but many students still lack a device.
John Bishop, 54, said it was ‘unacceptable’ that some children were being sent home without the tools to learn and were ‘basically being written off’.
He has now gifted 100 laptops to his old school in Cheshire, Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy.
He attended the school back in 1978 to 1983 when the school was called Brookvale High, and he qualified for free school meals as a boy.
He said: “The pandemic has been difficult for everyone, but it has also illustrated the gulf that exists in some parts of society – from the issue of free school meals, to the access of devices to facilitate home learning.
“My life was changed by the commitment of brilliant teachers and a supportive school and I know that ethos is still the same – teachers want to teach and the Government have to help and not hinder them.
“What I can do for my old school fills a gap, but the reality is that in 2021 our children deserve to be educated properly and that requires the Government to provide the tools necessary for home learning immediately. Because every day a child feels irrelevant is a day that we as a society could lose all the potential they offer.
“When this pandemic is over we do not want a generation of children who, through no fault of their own, find themselves left behind. Allowing that to happen would be shameful.”
Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy principal Kathryn Evans said: “John knows and really cares for our community, he got in touch quite out of the blue, knowing that we might well have pupils who don’t have spare laptops for remote learning laying around at home.
“This gift to our pupils is wonderful and that it’s from a former pupil, makes it all the more special. We are so grateful to him and his family.”
What a fantastic thing to do, well done John!
Commuters could be facing the steepest rise in the cost of train travel in more than a decade just months after prices were already increased.
It has been predicted today that train prices across England and Wales could rise by nearly 5% before the New Year.
The 2021 rise in prices was delayed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic when train travel was at an all-time low, however, tickets still saw a price rise of 2.6% in March.
Abhijit Tembhekar / Flickr
And this morning, the Retail Prices Index for July 2021 was confirmed as 3.8% by the Office for National Statistics, meaning passengers could see fares rise by 4.8% in 2022, which would be the largest hike since 2012.
This means that the cost of rail travel could increase twice within ten months, and would see a Manchester-Glasgow off-peak return rise by £6.30 to £94.90, according to Metro.
Though all hope isn’t yet gone – changes to the fares in 2022 are still yet to be confirmed.
Jon David Houghton / Wikimedia Commons
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “No decision has been made on national rail fares.
“The government is considering a variety of options and we will announce our decision in due course.”
This news has come as train travel in Manchester and beyond is on the rise – earlier this month, we reported that zero cases of Covid were found in Manchester Piccadilly Train Station, despite thousands of commuters using the station’s services as offices reopen.
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