Young learner thanks council for donated laptop

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Westminster Council has received thanks from one young learner after she was given a laptop to help with her school work.

Maycee, aged seven, received a laptop after being recommended by the ‘Family Navigator’ which is part of the council’s Early Help service for young people. Many children have had to adapt to completing school work at home since the COVID-19 lockdown, but not everyone has had access to the same resources.

The young pupil has since been able to use the device to complete school work and has also been able to expand her computer skills by learning how to use Microsoft Word plus typing on the keyboard. 

Thanking the council for the donated laptop, she said: “Having a laptop means that I can do my school work on there. Because I’m turning eight, I have a bit more responsibility for it, it also means that I’m learning to use the keyboard and I’m using Microsoft Word so that when I go back to school, I have a bit more experience.”

Using her laptop, Maycee also sent in a story about what life has been like in lockdown for her: “All I heard every day and all day was the lockdown, it was on the news, people were talking about it at the bus stop, it was even in the newspapers. 

“I got so scared because I did not understand what was going on, because of that I couldn’t sleep in the night. So my mummy stopped watching the news and stopped buying the newspaper and she and my dad stopped talking about it in front of me.

“Then one Friday mummy came to pick me up from school and said that the lockdown had started, that there was not going to be school for a while. But I liked school, I liked meeting my friends I felt sick in my stomach and my head hurt. I was worried that school was going to close down forever if there was no children. I miss my Beavers and Brownie clubs too.

“I am getting used to the lockdown now because I get to spend lots of time with my mummy and when my daddy comes home from work. Me and mummy do baking, we do drawing, we do dancing and trampolining in the garden. We get to make popcorn and we get a blanket and cover ourselves in it, I like that. Because of the lockdown I learned how to ride my bike, how to skip rope and I am nearly learning all my times table. The lockdown made people less busy and I like doing things with my mummy and daddy. My mummy said when a bad thing happens, turn it into a good thing and that is what the lockdown is.”

Cllr Timothy Barnes, Westminster City Council Cabinet Member for Children's Services, said: “Westminster is working hard to make sure that all of our young people can access the wealth of online resources available while schools and other activities are restricted. There are many more stories like Maycee’s and with the hundreds more laptops we hope to make available to our young people seen, there will be even more to come."