New Blog - March 2021

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Help in the community, supporting each other through Covid-19 – Croft Cargo

The Global pandemic has affected everyone in some way shape or form.

Our Founder and Managing Director, Lee Meadowcroft has experienced the impact of Covid-19 on both the business and within his personal life.

Having experienced home-school with his own family, Lee felt he was in the fortunate position with Croft Cargo to help support families that didn’t have access to online learning facilities at home.

He reached out to Cullingworth Village PrimarySchool to make a donation of tablets with keyboards to help support families without sufficient equipment for home schooling throughout the lockdown period.

We spoke to Louise Woffendin, Head of Cullingworth Village Primary School about the impact of Covid-19 on the pupils and how this donation helped the families in need of additional support throughout lockdown.

Background

In January 2021, Croft Cargo donated 100tablets with keyboards to the school. These tablets were donated to give to families who were home schooling and who didn’t have sufficient devices or equipment to do this adequately at home.

Lee Meadowcroft is a parent of a child at the Cullingworth Village Primary School, and he contacted the school directly with an offer of 100 donated devices from his business for pupils to use at home during lockdown to support them with home schooling. Lee Meadowcroft personally delivered the devices to school and has been in regular contact with Louise Woffendin and the. school business manager, to see if the devices have been working well and that they have supported families during these difficult times.

What difference has this donation made to the pupils and families?

The school advised that this donation has made a massive difference to the families who have received them. The devices have supported the pupils to be able to access the daily remote learning online which has meant that they have not missed key learning during the lockdown. This will hopefully mean there are fewer gaps in learning for these pupils and therefore less ‘catch up’ needed for them when they all return back to school in March.  

The devices have also had a positive impact on the mental health and wellbeing of the families who have received them. Many families were struggling to access the remote learning online as they were having to share devices between them, or they were having to use their mobile phones and several of the families didn’t have a device to use at all. The donated devices have eased the stress of home schooling for the families involved.

Comments from the pupils

“I get to use it just for me so I can do my ‘TimetableRockstar’s’ and not have to wait around for my sisters to do their pieces of work. I also get to type.”

Edgar Year 4

“I can get on and do my work quicker rather than having to share one with my siblings.”

Edie Year 5

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“It helped me a lot instead of looking at a tiny screen and mummy could help me type on the forms and we didn't have to use lots of printing.”

Ada, Year 2

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How did the parents feel about home-schooling once they had received the devices?

“I was tearing my hair out at the beginning of lockdown. My iPad is so old that it hasn't been able to update since 2018 so loads of the work set wouldn't work on there. I tried to resolve this by using my phone. My daughter couldn't see a thing and was always asking me "what does that say?"  and I can't see my teacher" (whilst doing their online assembly). They were all smaller than a postage stamp. Then I couldn't edit pages and it got me to the point of almost tears and when we were starting each day, I felt anxious about what I'd have to overcome that day. It was so stressful, and I felt her days were so disjointed. There was also the issue of my phone ringing and having to take calls which disturbed her education further.

Then came the message that school could loan us a tablet. Full of excitement we turned it on and set it up, dead easy. My shoulders relaxed and my daughter could not only see the screen and her teacher, but we could edit the forms and watch the videos. We weren't in a position togo buy a new tablet so the was a god send! It helped my daughter continue her education without disruption and it helped her mummy be able to relax and breath better without the morning anxiety I used to have. Thank you so much for making this possible we really appreciate this.”

Parent of Year 2 pupil

“Having the devices is amazing. Before, I was getting up at 5am each school day to go on Dojo and write out the work for my three youngest children where I could. They would then take it in turns to watch work related videos off my old and very slow iPad before doing the work -this made for very long and stressful days. The devices mean I can leave the eldest two of the three to get on with their work whilst I work with the youngest.”

Parent with pupils in Year 5, Year 4 and Year2

A final comment from the school and Croft Cargo

From everyone at Cullingworth Village PrimarySchool, we would like to say a huge thank you to Croft Cargo for the extremely kind donation of the devices which have greatly supported our families during these difficult times.

Louise Woffendin, Head of School

“I’m so happy we helped so many people and it’s great to see the children and families being able to use them.

I’d also like to say a huge thank you to Buy It Direct, where we sourced the devices from. They were really helpful in advising what the most suitable equipment was and supplying these quickly for me to be able to deliver to the school. ”

Lee Meadowcroft, Founder and Managing Director of Croft Cargo

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