Project description:

1 in 8 schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland do not have a library. There is massive inequality between the rich and the poor, as more than 90% of schools that have less than 10% of pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) have a library area. This inequality in access and opportunity is hampering underprivileged students to reach their potential and progress in life. 

Our organisation helps reduce this educational inequality by providing a link between book donors to schools with a high proportion of disadvantaged students i.e students eligible for pupil premium and FSM. Using a modern and efficient app-based service, our organisation aims to provide a simple passage between the donors and schools. The schools will receive donated books and be able to loan them to students, thus increasing accessibility and opportunity available for the students for reading and learning.

We anticipate that our work will be highly beneficial as educational inequality in the UK is rising. The UK is the world’s 5th largest economy, yet ranks 16th and 23rd in educational inequality in secondary school and primary school years respectively. Without access to books and resources, disadvantaged children will be left behind.

Through the use of an integrated website and app, we intend to connect book donors to schools in need. Donors can list the books they are donating (textbooks, fiction and nonfiction) and set a preference for how far they are willing to travel to donate. Schools can sign up, see the books accessible in their local area and select the ones they require. In this way, schools “match” with the donor providing these individuals with an address to deliver the donations to. We see this as a modern, efficient and impactful donation service compared to schools receiving masses of irrelevant or inappropriate donations. This service’s planned launch will be in Winter 2020 in Greater London and Greater Manchester.

We are searching for experienced individuals to join our app development team. This roles involves a selection of:

• Creating a high-quality app from designs and specifications
• Adding gamification elements to the app
• Either or both front-end or back-end app development
• Collaborating with the existing front-end and back-end app developers

As an app developer, the individual will:

• Work remotely as part of a team – meetings and communication will be conducted primarily through Microsoft Teams
• Often be in contact with the CEO to ensure that the app is produced to the specifications required.