High School hands out lap tops to every new starter

Oct 8 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

Pupils start surfing and ‘bridge the digital divide’

ALL first-year students at a Wirral school have been given laptops under an innovative scheme to bridge the “digital divide”.

Year 7 pupils at Park High, in Birkenhead, have each received one of 350 top-end portable PCs to help them with their schoolwork.

Headteacher Steve McMahon said the scheme was a fantastic move which was “what so many of our students and their families would have dreamed of”.

The students are loaned the Toshi-ba computers, which remain the property of the school, to help them with schoolwork and are also expect-ed to use them in some of the classes.

Mr McMahon said: “The scheme, which is partly funded for us through the Government, is designed to address the digital divide. That is a barrier that exists between those families and young people who have access to computers and the internet and those who do not.

“All the research suggests if you can’t access the internet a whole host of opportunities are denied, from finding out information and getting cheap deals to preparing for and even finding jobs and employment.

“Everything from social to career options have been identified as major issues to these children.”

All the computers are fitted with advanced anti-theft systems so if they are stolen police can track them instantly. They also have filters to protect the children from inappropriate websites.

Mr McMahon said he had been concerned about computers making his students targets for thieves, but had been reassured by the security measures. He said: “This scheme has been piloted elsewhere and the computers have state of the art anti-theft and tracking. As soon as one is taken and switched on, the police know where it is.”

Although not the only school in Wirral and Merseyside to benefit from the Government scheme it is believed Park High have handed out by far the most to students.

Mr McMahon said there are also plans to create a “wi-fi” cloud to allow the youngsters to access the internet from home without having to pay for broadband access.

Other students will also benefit from the distribution of a further 250 laptops, and their headteacher said they would help boost independent learning by his students.

Mr McMahon added: “We are very grateful to the e-Learning Founda-tion for helping us to meet the wider learning needs of our students and their families. We have just achieved our best-ever examination results, and the quality of the work our students produce will now improve even more.”

The laptops handout follows more good news for the school, which is located near Birkenhead Park, after it was recently awarded National Healthy Schools status.

To achieve the status, Park High School had to meet forty-one standards in four different areas, including physical activity, emotional health, healthy eating as well as personal, social and health education.

liammurphy