As fears of further Covid-related restrictions continue, Cognita has started to rollout a programme to equip all students in Year 3 (Grade 2 in Spain and Switzerland) and above in our Europe schools with their own personal laptop or iPad for use in school and at home. Our education transformation programme, the implementation of which Cognita is funding, involves over 12,000 digital devices being distributed to students in the UK, Spain and Switzerland in the coming weeks and months. It is part of a longer-term digital strategy that also includes forming partnerships with leading education providers such as CENTURY and Learning by Questions (LbQ), helping to create a ‘digital backpack’ of resources that teachers and students can use.

“We are not just handing out devices, we are providing an entire infrastructure to support schools in how they prepare and deliver this transformation,” says Andy Perryer, Digital Learning Adviser in the UK.  “Central to this is our new Digital Learning website (digitallearning.cognita.com) to support colleagues in how to use educational technology effectively in the classroom. We are incredibly excited to see how schools use these devices alongside a progressive curriculum for our students, knowing that whatever happens in the future, the learning continues.”

Simon Camby, our Group Education Director, adds: “This is about much more than pivoting to online learning in the event of future lockdowns. It’s about the integration of the most beneficial aspects of digital learning in education now and in the future. It will enable our students to develop their digital skills, preparing them for life beyond school. In addition, it will allow our teachers to use technology in the best way possible to support personalised learning, from providing feedback through to developing peer-to-peer collaboration skills. It’s about moving towards the classroom of the future.”

Within the first week, 15% of student devices had already been handed out, with the remainder of the rollout taking place over the next few months.