Mail Force buys £1m of laptops: Boost for schools as charity places order for 5,000 new computers

Mail Force yesterday struck a mammoth £1million deal for new computers for lockdown pupils.

The laptops will go to 5,000 of Britain’s most needy schoolchildren and will arrive in several batches over two weeks – starting on Monday.

The landmark moment has come thanks to Daily Mail readers who have donated so generously, along with a parade of philanthropists and big companies.

Donations have poured into the campaign to help schoolchildren unable to follow their online classes. 

Huge numbers of families are on the wrong side of the ‘digital divide’ – the gulf between those able to afford enough devices for learning and those not.

Mail Force’s significant intervention would be enough to supply a computer to every primary school pupil eligible for free school meals in the city of Bristol.

Or it would cover the same category of pupil in all secondary schools in Nottingham, or a third of those in Cambridgeshire or County Durham. 

The mountain of machines would fill a dozen vans and would be enough to give to all the children in five typical inner city comprehensives.

Last night Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said: ‘This campaign continues to go from strength to strength and it’s brilliant to see that, alongside the 1.3million devices the Government is providing, the generosity of Mail readers means more top-of-the-range laptops will be going to children and young people who need them.’

Mail Force has ordered more than 3,000 Samsung Chromebook 4 devices. These sleek machines are heralded as among the most easy to use on the market, getting children online quickly and easily.

Robert Halfon, chairman of the education select committee, said: ‘Lots of schools just need a simple Chromebook to get a child up and running. 

‘They are perfect to solve the problem of significant numbers of children who do not have any access to their online lessons.’

A further 1,300 laptops are Acer TravelMate devices, which are specially designed with school pupils in mind and can be flipped from being a tablet to full laptop mode. The charity has also ordered a consignment of Samsung Galaxy Tab A7s.

The brand new machines are on top of 4,250 laptops that are already being donated by some of Britain’s leading companies.

Mail Force’s Computers for Kids campaign, backed by the Daily Mail, only launched at the end of last month, but has already raised £7million in cash and laptop donations.

As well as buying new machines, donated devices from companies can be repurposed for the classroom. 

For around £15 they can be expertly refurbished fit for home schooling use. 

All of the new laptops the charity is funding are on top of the 1.3million being bought by the Government.

The Mail Force devices are being gifted to the Government and schools can apply for them in the normal way through the Department for Education website.

The campaign’s computers will boost the overall number available, helping more and more pupils keep up with schoolwork. 

And even when the pandemic restrictions are lifted, the extraordinary effort to furnish children with laptops will have a lasting effect. 

It will help youngsters to catch up with their missed learning, and the overall legacy will last for years.

Research suggests this generation of children whose education has been stalled could suffer up to £40,000 in lost earnings over their lifetime as a result.

Mail Force was set up last year to help get PPE to nurses and doctors who desperately needed it. Now the charity is determined to ride to the rescue of schoolchildren. 

Big companies such as Camelot, Lloyds, Sainsbury’s, Direct Line, Peak Scientific and Dixons Carphone have pledged to help, along with philanthropists such as Sir Tom Hunter.

Donations also continue to arrive from generous readers. Grandmother Joan Mottershead, who said her own family was struggling with just one device, supported the campaign with a £25 donation. 

She wrote: ‘I have four grandchildren in school and they are having to share a computer.’

OAP Ann donated £15 from her pension and said: ‘No child should be deprived of the chance of education. They are the future and will have to pay the bills for this pandemic.’

Kitty Muldoon sent a cheque, with a letter saying: ‘I am a long-time reader of the Daily Mail and admire your campaign for the children of the UK during this awful pandemic. Although a pensioner, not being able to get out to spend, I have this spare cash! Good luck and well done.’