Boss of Peterborough’s BGL Group calls on business leaders to support pupils learning from home

The appeal comes from Mark Bailie, chief executive of insurance giant BGL Group, which through its BGL4Schools campaign has just donated £285,000 to help struggling schools purchase tech to support remote learning.

Mr Bailie, who last year joined BGL, based in Bakewell Road, Orton Southgate, where it has about 1,800 staff, says support for schools is vital to prevent a generation of children falling behind.

He says firms have a duty to their colleagues and their families and to the wider community to ensure young people are able to realise their potential.

Launching the appeal, Mr Bailie said: “I would urge businesses, who are already having to adapt to the challenges of remote working and homeschooling, to support schools with this challenge in the coming months and years and consider how they allocate funds to have the maximum impact.

“Schools are in an impossible situation trying to homeschool and teach vulnerable children and those of key workers.

“Meanwhile they have increasing pressure on their budgets.

“We are grateful for everything teachers are doing right now and they need as much support as possible.

“With the likelihood that an element of homeschooling - as much as home working - will become a standard part of life for the foreseeable, the digital capability of our children is something we all should support.”

A total of 191 schools - 71 of which were in Cambridgeshire and 31 in Lincolnshire - have applied for funding from the BGL fundraising and each received a £1,500 grant.

Darren Smith, deputy headteacher at William Law C of E Primary School in Werrington, Peterborough, said: “We have families who haven’t got a laptop or Wi-Fi and we’re also getting the occasional phone calls where the laptop is broken, or they aren’t able to access the resources, or there are maybe three in a household all sharing one device.

“We will also use the money for reading books as last lockdown, we had some children go back two years in reading and we’re really keen that doesn’t happen again. Reading is fundamental to the rest of the curriculum, so it’s important we keep that up at home.”

Karen Bielawski, a finance manager at Leighton Primary School in Orton Malborne, Peterborough, said: “We have had quite a lot of children who don’t have a device and have been learning on a mobile phone which isn’t great as it’s a real struggle for them to have live lessons, or work on a worksheet from a phone.

“Some are having to share a device with siblings, so they’re not able to fit all their learning into the day that way.

“It’s obviously impacting on their education. It’s very difficult for these families.”

BGL has donated more than £1 million to charities, schools and other good causes since April.

As well as giving grants to schools, the company also empowered its colleagues to volunteer or fundraise for their child’s school by offering double match funding.

The amount raised by BGL colleagues exceeded £35,000, with BGL contributing an additional £45,000 in match funding. Colleagues have also been reading online with a child for half an hour each week via Innovations for Learning’s TutorMate programme.

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