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Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

Rocket Fund: Donna's Story

Following the succesful pilot of our education crowdfunding platform, Rocket Fund, we visited one of the primary schools that took part, to find out what impact the items had.

Donna, a Computing Specialist at Newington Green Primary School in Islington, London, raised £1,523 for VR (virtual reality) headsets to support learning across the school. 

Commenting on the school's situation before Rocket Fund, she said: “We had three iPods and one headset that could be used for VR. You’re talking 10 children around one iPod, it just doesn’t work."

Having taken part in the pilot, Donna managed to raise the money for 10 headsets, which she said equates to "one between three children".

It means many more pupils are able to visit places outside of their everyday lives, via VR.

Here is Donna's story...

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We hope you find Donna's story as inspiring as we found visiting the school. It was amazing to see first hand the value the pupils got from the experience and how positive they were about Rocket Fund and the people who donated. "They’re all legends!" said Osman, 11.

We aim to keep building and developing Rocket Fund, to make sure more pupils benefit from similarly exciting experiences in the future.

Key figures:

Students that benefited: 350
Age: 5 - 11
Pupils: 76 per cent on pupil premium (a key measure of disadvantage)

Our favourite photos from the day...

    

Inspired?

We’re now open for submissions for the next wave on Rocket Fund - if you’d like to get involved, click here to start creating a project. The deadline is 1 May.

Or get in touch here if you’d like to support a school.

Rocket Fund is a crowdfunding platform for schools, aiming to reduce inequality by enabling students from any background to access the latest educational experiences.

Author

Ben Gill

Ben Gill

Ben Gill

Senior Programme Manager

Ben was a Senior Programme Manager in the Innovation Lab's Education Team.

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