e-learning foundation

[mrphil]

has anyone heard of these thing they are trying to rip the school off though but can't be sure anyone had experience?

[Sylv3r]

Yes, i've heard of them but never used them with our student laptop scheme. How are they ripping you off?

[mrphil]

not certain yet getting a feeling thats all. They got to the Headteacher at a conference and he is pretty keen for us to use them but they seem a bit wishy washy, and just seems like they are out to make "administrative charges". Maybe I have just heard the same old story before!!!

[GrumbleDook]

We run a scheme that is not eligible for grants, etc under the eLearning Foundation as we do not run our scheme for all students in a particular year group ... this means we do all our own admin ... and if I had a choice I would bite their hand off to pay their charge rather than us do all the work.

You can also pay a similar charge to companies like Syscap to do the work for you but we did not take that up here (didn't quite fit into what we wanted but would be fine for most schools).

The eLF are a good bunch and very helpful when trying to find additional grants and helpful when getting the VAT and other charitable benefits. If you give them a call they will happily talk directly to you rather than via your Head.

[Sylv3r]

We used Syscap and have had no issues with them at all. Yes, they do charge an administration fee but as GrumbleDook said its much better then doing all the admin in house.

[mrphil]

cheers for the info chaps will see how it goes

[Sharon_Wright]

Hi GrumbleDook. How did you check that 'Schools must satisfy themselves that the students in this grant application come from families whose income is below £27,000 and are not eligible for a Home Access grant'?

[GrumbleDook]

Hi Sharon, this was in the days before the 'Home Access' scheme, so not that relevant. The scheme has now been wound up and is not taking on new participants (no longer at the school either so 3rd hand information), mainly due to the extensive IT provision at the school and the rise in access to affordable computing by those families we targeted.