More than 35,000 laptops and tablets on way to learners in Wales over next few weeks

More than 35,000 laptops and tablets will be provided to learners in Wales over the next few weeks.

It brings the total number of devices supplied by the Welsh Government since the start of the coronavirus pandemic to more than 133,000.

During the early stages of the health crisis, Education Minister Kirsty Williams pledged that “no child or family would be left behind”.

And the country’s response has been praised in a recent independent report which said Wales had “led the way” in providing IT and online learning to pupils at home.

The Welsh Government has provided further details regarding how it has supported learners as the virus continues to disrupt face-to-face teaching under the following headings:

Supporting digitally excluded learners

The Education Policy Institute said Wales had “led the way” in supporting digitally excluded learners.

The Welsh Government worked with local authorities across Wales to fund almost 11,000 MiFi devices to help those without internet get online and almost 10,000 re-purposed devices to access online learning.

Record breaking remote learning

Usage of the Hwb platform has gone up since remote learning restarted this term.

Hwb has seen a daily average of over 50 logins a second, providing its users with access to digital services, including email and online learning tools.

The platform itself is also recording record logins of over 337,000, with more than one million page views every day.

Free access to state-of-the-art software

All teachers and learners in Wales are able to download Microsoft Office and access Minecraft: Education Edition for free at home on their personal devices.

Making things simple

Through Hwb, the Welsh Government provides schools with a single point of access to a choice of online learning packages, including Google for Education and the suite of Microsoft applications.

Teaching the teachers

The Hwb team has continued to offer digital professional development opportunities for staff throughout the pandemic, with 6,295 attendees taking part in 87 live webinars.

There is a wide range of remote learning support materials and guidance available on Hwb.

For more information, please visit hwb.gov.wales