A “landmark” occasion in a school’s history saw 52 iPads delivered to the classroom – thanks to The Argus.

Teachers at the brand new City Academy Whitehawk in Whitehawk Road were presented with an iPad each, donated by education charity the Fonthill Foundation.

Chairman of the charity, Andrew Goodall, was introduced to the new academy school by Michael Beard, editor of The Argus, and he immediately saw the potential for supporting the new academy school and proposed the scheme.

He said: “Our charity, which has been in education for 200 years, wishes to support projects which transform the learning experience, doing things differently to excite the pupils and engage them in learning through new technology and improving literacy and numeracy outcomes.

“It’s about teachers having the latest technology at their finger tips to be at the forefront of leading practice in teaching and learning.

“Hopefully this is just the beginning of a wonderful partnership.

“The school has strong management and I’m looking forward to seeing this exciting technology improve the school.”

The charity is also supporting training for teaching staff on how best to use the iPads to support their work with pupils.

A further 30 iPads are intended to be used for selected class sets by pupils.

Head teacher David Williams said: “It’s an exciting time and it’s down to a lot of people’s hard work and help.

“We have a full complement of staff for the first time in more than three years, which will help us deliver what we want to give to the children and parents of Whitehawk.

“We are absolutely delighted to have formed this partnership with Fonthill Foundation just as we open the new academy – this project can help us to achieve our ambition to be ‘great by choice’, where all pupils have an entitlement to high quality teaching and learning experience.”

Landmark Lynn Thackway, chairman of governors at the school, said: “It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to |be here today and I may never be involved in such a landmark occasion again in my career.

“It really is the start of something very special and I can’t wait to see where we are a year from now.”