Today the Mirror launches a campaign to help lockdown pupils with an enormous donation of £1million from Britain’s biggest teaching union.
We are aiming to raise much needed cash for kids left working from home without the most basic items such as colouring pens, books and notepads.
All the money raised will go towards stationery and essential equipment for younger children still too young for online learning.
Our “Help a Child to Learn” campaign aims to help every child get the education they deserve during the Covid crisis.
In an unprecedented gesture, the NEU has kickstarted the campaign with a £1million donation, which will be targeted at schools in England with the highest proportion of children claiming free school meals.
And the Mirror is calling on readers and firms to give a helping hand to the poorest children by donating to the appeal.
With school closures looking set to last until Easter for many pupils, the need for basic kit such as pens and paper could not be greater.
An exclusive survey of more than 2,500 NEU members found 95% were teaching students with limited or no access to learning resources at home.
Four out of five members (81%) are seeing families ask for extra support from their school or college for resources such as pens, paper and books.
More than a quarter of teachers (27%) said half or more of their pupils were in this situation.
Teachers said some pupils are using toilet paper or flyers instead of exercise books, others have had to be given crayons and pens by their school.
To donate to the appeal please click here
Some pupils are ashamed to admit they don’t have the right equipment, damaging their confidence and sometimes leading to disruptive behaviour.
Schools are trying to help pupils but the need to keep schools Covid-secure is heaping pressure on strained budgets, the union said.
The survey found nearly half (48%) of teachers had bought pens and pencils for their pupils, a quarter (25%) bought glue sticks and a third (32%) bought paper.
Nearly a third (29%) reported buying books to lend to children who have no books at home.
More than 4.2million children were trapped in poverty in 2018/19, according to Government figures.
The situation is believed to have worsened during the pandemic. 55% of NEU members reported an increase in child poverty at their school or college since the start of the first lockdown in March last year.
Our campaign is calling on ministers to make sure no child loses out on an education because of coronavirus and all pupils should have the materials they need to learn.
We are also calling on the Government to tackle underlying causes of child poverty that hold back kids’ education.
Kevin Courtney and Dr Mary Bousted, NEU Joint General Secretaries, said: “Teachers and school leaders tell us that their poorest and most disadvantaged children’s learning is hampered because they do not have the basic essentials in their homes.
“Pupils cannot learn if they do not have paper to write on and pens to write with. They cannot engage in creative learning if they lack crayons and glue. Cardboard and toilet paper are not substitutes for exercise books.
“Our Help a Child to Learn campaign is driven by the level of need NEU members see in their pupils. The sheer scale of child poverty and its effects on children’s learning is heart-breaking.
“It should not be necessary, in 2021 to supply pupils with the very basics they need to participate in remote learning, but it is necessary and this campaign will rise to the challenge.
“With public help, and in addition to the £1 million pound contribution from the NEU, we will grow this fund to support more schools and even more pupils.”
Shocking shortages of basic kit come on top of a widening digital divide, as poorer pupils struggle to access laptops and wifi.
The Government pledged to send 1.3million laptops to needy children last year but around 875,000 have been delivered.
Shortages leave children struggling to learn while sharing a laptop with their siblings and parents or crowding around a phone to do their school work. Some have no access at all.
Only 5% of teachers in state schools said that all their pupils had access to a device, compared to 54% in private schools, according to a recent report by the Sutton Trust.
And just 5% of state school pupils had adequate internet access at the beginning of the lockdown, compared to 51% of their privately educated peers.
Children from middle class families are spending more time on remote learning than their working class peers, with 40% doing more than five hours a day, compared to 26% in working class households.
The stark situation has prompted a warning from the Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield that the pandemic could damage the life chances of some of the poorest children.
Ms Longfield told the Mirror: “Every child has the right to a good education yet there are millions of children who struggle to learn at home through no fault of their own, often due to a lack of technology or learning materials.
“We already know the gap between how well disadvantaged children do and how well other children do was growing, even before the pandemic arrived.
“With many children out of school for the best part of a year, that gap is likely to grow wider, particularly for those children who don’t have the right equipment at home.
“Providing children with the tools they need to learn will make a huge difference, and I am very pleased to support the Mirror’s campaign.”
Schools will be able to apply for vouchers of £500, £1,000 and £1,500 depending on size, allowing them to purchase what they need.
The NEU will contact schools with this highest level of need in every region of England, with funds distributed by the firm Viking.
Raffael Reinhold, Chief Executive of Office Depot Europe, said: “Viking is proud to work in partnership with NEU and support the campaign to provide the materials needed for teachers to continue to make a difference to the lives of their pupils.”
You can also sign the petition on the site, calling for the Prime Minister to deliver a £750million boost for disadvantaged pupils via the pupil premium.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are determined to ensure children continue to receive a high quality education during this pandemic. We are providing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for those children who need them most, with more than 875,000 of these delivered already, alongside access to free mobile data and online resources for disadvantaged families.
“Our £1 billion Covid catch up package is helping tackle the impact of lost teaching time and includes the £350 million National Tutoring Programme offering high-quality tuition to the students that need it most.
“We thank teachers, school staff and parents who continue to work tirelessly to ensure vulnerable and critical worker children can still attend school, while delivering remote education for those at home.”