Hyperoptic supports Birmingham Education Partnership

Hyperoptic, the UK’s largest Gigabit full fibre provider, is delighted to support a new programme from the Birmingham Education Partnership, which has been developed to help vulnerable children in Birmingham who cannot access education resources due to a lack of  IT equipment in their homes.

Birmingham Education Partnership has formed the Digital Education Partnership to provide laptops to disadvantaged children in Birmingham. It is estimated that there are over 5000 children in Birmingham have been unable to access remote learning opportunities during lockdown because they lack a device and access to the internet at home.

A survey by the National Foundation for Education Research, which questioned 1,233 senior leaders and 1,821 teachers in publicly funded, mainstream primary and secondary schools in England, identified a huge concern about low engagement from pupils with limited access to IT. The teachers reported that over a quarter (27%) of their pupils have little or no access to IT at home.

Hyperoptic has provided a significant donation to help 60 of the most disadvantaged children and their families access the online home learning and wellbeing support. The donation has already been used to provide devices and internet access for children and young people across Birmingham who would otherwise be digitally excluded.

Liam McAvoy, Senior Director of Business Development, Hyperoptic: “We were very impressed with the vision of the Digital Education Partnership and we wanted to show our support. Enabling digital inclusion is a strategic priority for Hyperoptic. We work with over 50 councils to supply their social housing stock with hyperfast broadband services, because we believe that connectivity enables opportunity.”

Manjit Shellis, BEP Assistant Director for Wider Learning and leading The Digital Education Project: “Most of us take for granted having a computer and WiFi but not everyone is lucky enough to be in that position, so this scheme is vital in getting children from families that are struggling to get connected and help them stay on top of their schoolwork. We want to give all children a fair chance to flourish.

“A massive thank you to Hyperoptic for their donation – it will make a huge difference in children and young people’s, especially in these difficult times when it is even more important to stay connected. We could not run this project without this support.”