Wimbledon residents will not have failed to hear the reports of the real divide between families that are technologically poor and those that have adequate equipment, knowledge and skills to home-school their children in this pandemic.

Children from poor households who would most benefit from skilled online teaching are most likely to be excluded because they do not have computers at home. The damage to their long term prospects could be profound.

At our meeting on Monday, the Executive Committee of Wimbledon Labour Party discussed what we could do practically to help, and we agreed to donate £5,000 to buy laptop computers for local schools. The money will be given to the Dons Local Action Group which is doing fantastic work in providing Chrome Notebooks and recycled laptops to children in local schools.

A proposal like this would usually go to a General Meeting meeting for approval. However, with the suspension of meetings due to the Covid pandemic, the AGM being deferred until after the Mayoral elections and the real and immediate need of children, the Executive Committee believed it was essential to act now.

We will be working with the Dons Local Action Group to ensure that the appliances go to the most needy children who are based in schools in the Wimbledon constituency. We hope that up to twenty children will benefit from our donation.

If you would like more information on the work that the AFC Wimbledon Foundation and Dons Local Action Group is doing see https://www.mvsc.co.uk/afc-wimbledon-foundation-and-dons-local-action-group