A PRIMARY school is the latest to benefit from faster broadband speeds thanks to a council scheme.

Ashperton Primary Academy, near Ledbury, were unable to have entire classes using the internet at the same time before their broadband speeds were increased as part of Herefordshire Council’s Fastershire Broadband Project.

Fastershire has already enabled more than 30,000 homes and businesses across the county to access faster broadband and Ashperton is the latest school to benefit from superfast speeds.

Emma Marriage, reception teacher and IT co-ordinator at Ashperton Primary Academy, said: “Technology plays a huge part in our school, with the use of iPads, laptops and interactive boards in each class being used daily.

“Faster broadband has already made huge impact on our school, both for the children's learning and also for teachers and administrative team. We’re now able to have entire classes using internet at the same time and this was impossible before now.”

Councillor David Harlow, cabinet member for economy and corporate services and responsible for the Fastershire project added: “It’s particularly satisfying to see how faster and reliable internet access is helping our county’s children.

“The whole purpose of the Fastershire project is to ensure that Herefordshire has a world class broadband network that will allow our communities and businesses to thrive and nothing illustrates that more than our schools.”

Fastershire has recently signed a contract with provider Gigaclear to deliver phase two of the project, which will see over 8,000 additional premises access faster broadband and speeds up to 1000 mega bites per second.

For more information visit: www.fastershire.com.