School's Chromebooks funded thanks to £1,000 from the Aviva Community Fund
'We received £1,000 from the Aviva Community Fund towards our Chromebooks'
'In spring 2017 we purchased 14 Chromebooks and a lockable charger cabinet, as the school was keen to further advance the IT resources available to our children. We had extremely positive feedback from both pupils and staff, and so set out to buy a further 18 Chromebooks to give us a full class set.
Our Co-Chair Sarah received an email inviting her to take part in the Aviva Community Fund as an Aviva customer. We thought ours was a great project to pitch, so decided to apply.
The online application was straightforward and took just a few minutes. To apply we needed our charity number and to have a specific project for which we were fundraising. There were different funding levels and categories available, and we opted for the lowest amount of £1,000 in the "skills for life" category.
The next step was for the public to vote for their choice of project through the Aviva Community Fund website. It worked in a 'first past the post' style - the first 200 causes in each category to reach 1,000 votes received the funding. Before voting went live we campaigned on our social media pages and to our wider school family of parents, guardians, grandparents, friends and village residents, asking them to vote as soon as it was open. It worked, and we found out we'd been successful within a month of voting opening - we were one of the first causes out of 200 to reach 1,000 votes!
We received the money all in one go, and alongside £1,800 from our position as a Co-op Community Fund charity and funds from events, we were able to purchase the 18 Chromebooks to complete our class set of 32. Our children were very excited when they arrived and are really enjoying using them.'
Niki Walker and Sarah Stannard, PTA Co-Chairs, St Edward's CofE Primary School, Castle Donington, Derby (200 pupils)
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