Lockdown Learning – Classroom Yearning

Anonymous Parent & Tutor

I am a person of many disciplines, a specialist teacher, personal tutor and a single parent mother. I know how important accessibility and good connection is to learning online. Our children are facing so many struggles at this time without being able to have face to face contact and interaction with their peers that the last thing they need is unreliable online connect.

During this pandemic I was furloughed in my main job and so have focused more on remote private tutoring. This also has its challenges as screen time can be exhausting for me and for the students. As a parent I also have to content with homeschooling my ADHD/autistic son and play referee between him and his seventeen-year-old sister, who is also home studying for her A levels.

Subsequently I have gained real insight into the views of those I work with as well as my own experiences. There is a general feeling of claustrophobia but a resigned awareness that the situation is beyond our control and we have to make the best of it all. Our education and mental health will be affected long after vaccines are delivered and renewed. This why having suitable equipment and connection is so vital at this time. We have a duty of care to our children to provide a sufficient and relevant outlet for their justifiable anger and resentment and at the same time keep them motivated to continue learning instead of playing on playstation as a distraction.

It can feel like slow motion, sometimes one-dimensional teaching is being delivered too fast for some people to grasp. Then there is the frustration of sluggish WiFi dropping off in the middle of the tasks, not to mention having to share devices. It’s a mind field of problems. Sometimes sharing the use of the computer puts an even greater strain on homeschooling. The children have to speak with different teachers on separate lessons in the same room and still try to concentrate.

I am not surprised my kids feel dejected and disheartened, dishevelled in pjs for the day, sniping at each other and sad about their education. The irony is that the very thing they’ve always rebelled against, school, is now the thing they crave. Without being real live students, walking along from class to class, they have no social interaction, suffer screen-based headaches and mental health issues that need an outlet. This is why it is so important to have a laptop and good connection in order to reach out, connect and learn. The positive community spirit pulls everyone together in a joint initiative to relive the strain. More and more laptops are being donated and funds raised to support the most vulnerable and deserving. Tarner Community Project are a fantastic resource helping so many in need during this extraordinary time.

There is a way to make a positive change

Many individuals and businesses are donating their unused laptops plus making monetary donations to help support the refurbishment of these devices so they are in top working condition once supplied to the child in need.  To make this possible Tarner Community Project have partnered up with Level Up Laptops.

Donate your spare devices

Please fill our DONATION FORM and we will arrange pickup / drop off.
Please make a cash donation please click on the button below.