Pupil Premium - access to IT equipment

[timbo343]

The pupil premium thing has raised it's head at our place. I have been told that a Y11 student is to get some form of laptop/tablet device for doing work at home, so i have been told one thing and then been told another.

 

The first thing i was told was this student will be getting a device which will be theirs to use at home and to take away with them once they have left the school even though said student is not returning to school to do 6th form study. Now i am told by someone else that this device should be handed back to the school once the student has left and that an agreement needs to be drawn up with the correct owner/user/who its insured by etc.

 

So i've been to buy a laptop for said student and about to buy office - the student version to stick on the laptop and things seem to have just come to a halt.

 

I was wondering if anyone else has been down this route and if there are any agreements/dos an donts/AUPs regarding this.

[Cache]

Not much help, but I'd be interested to know what you decide and do along these lines as I've had a very similar discussion with someone this week about the same thing.

 

My gut instinct is we are buying the device and that in reality the device should remain property of the school. If you look at BYOD however, a number of companies suggest you can use pupil premium to support it for those students who can't afford it and obviously the way they are set up the student normally keeps the device at the end.

Edited February 26, 2014 by Cache

[rad]

Year 11 start exams 12 May... So 2 months left of school (excl Easter hols) seriously, are they mad?

 

Knowing our kids - sorry it got nicked= I'm keeping it!

[laserblazer]

Let me know what you get and when so I can look for a bargain on Ebay

[elsiegee40]

With my governor head on, I would love to know how they are going to prove this is value for money with pupil premium spend.

 

This will have to go on the website... if there is only one child getting a computer, then the rest of the community will know exactky how much has been spent on it!

 

I have been the Governor being grilled by an Ofsted inspector about the spend and it's impact; it wasn't pretty and I knew my stuff and we were OK!

 

Don't get me wrong, maybe there will be serious measurable impact... I hope there will be.

[Cache]

Well I suppose in the break down you could mark it down as ICT Resources to assist with homework and independant study and depending on how much you spend as the pupil premium ammount is £900 per student, it's unlikely to cost you that for a laptop. If it is, then I would be questioning it too.

 

Measurable impact could be something as simple as moving from no homework being completed to homework being done (unlikely, but hey).

 

I'm not arguing either way as to whether it should be done or not, however IMHO it should be no more the 1/3 of a pupil premium allocation for a particular student. I'm not sure whether Ofsted would agree or disagree with it.

[howartp]

Just bought an iPad for one of ours in sixth form under instruction from head. Not keen on it, but we already have the structure in place for it (student-use iPads in SEN dept, managed through Meraki).

[bossman]

We came across this a few years ago when the laptop for students scheme came out, one point that we came across was the requirements to have filtered internet access at home, we have a duty of care as a school to make sure that any IT equipment used at home in conjunction with internet access requires a filtering system in place and this is why there is always going to be a problem with giving school equipment to students to take home.

 

The way I feel is to empower the parents to buy in to a loan scheme provided by an outside company separate to the school which would then put the focus on the company rather than the school.

 

There are plenty of schemes out there which provide this kind of solution.

 

I feel it is not up to us to provide an at home service for students as it is their parents who should be in charge even though the money comes from the school.

 

Just my opinion.

[timbo343]

At the moment, i am creating a Loan Equipment Acceptable Use Policy. It looks like we might be going down the route of saying the laptop is the schools therefore it needs to be handed back once the student leaves but it might be a document that keeps changing as i can see lots of ways this document could be interoperated.

 

I shall update this thread once something becomes set in stone.