Managed Print Solution - Charging Pupils

[NetworkNinja]

Hi all,

 

We have recently introduced a managed print solution within our academy. The headteacher would like to charge pupils for printing if they want to go over there allowance for the year. We are planning to give each pupil £4 per year.

 

Do any other schools charge pupils for printing? if so does anyone have a letter they sent to parents that i could nick. Finding it hard to write a letter.

[NetworkNinja]

Does any other schools charge students for printing?

[Rob_D]

No. We don't charge students.

Teacher's printing is charged to the Curriculum Area budget and outside lettings are charged for any printing/copying they do. But the cost of student printing is just sucked up by the school. We give students a limit of 50p a day and anything over that can be authorized to a Curriculum Area budget by the teacher (mostly for courses like graphics or photography).

 

When I was at collage (about 15 years back), we had to pay for all our printing.

[localzuk]

No, as the need to print is part of their normal education and therefore could reasonably seen as prohibited by law (the DFE guide states that schools cannot charge for "education provided during school hours (including the supply of any materials,books, instruments or other equipment);". Its governed by Section 449-462 of the Education Act 1996, and applies to all maintained schools, academies and local authorities.

[DaveTheTech]

we dont charge our pupils, much like Rob_D. Different departments also have budgets, but I am not sure if this is every claimed back.

[Mako]

We provide £3 for Y7-11 and £5 for sixth form per term.

 

Black and white printing is 6p per A4 sheet, colour is 12p per sheet. All A3 printing is 15p. If they run out they need to top up with cash, or a department can credit them from their printing budget.

[LTurner3692]

Never charged students, we limited them to £5 a term, C/W heavy subjects like Art/Photography and Bussiness use to be allowed more when required.

 

We use to charge departments for there use each month with a report sent to HOD's so they could keep an eye on it.

 

We charged 10P a colour A4 page 5P B/W and 18P for A3.

 

We always made enough to cover the printing costs for the year!

[HTCPCP]

When we introduced this a few years ago in my last place, we used to charge students who went over the print levels. It was year 7-9 £5 a year. Years 10&11 - £5 every 6 months, and 6th form were given basically free reign on printing (within reason). However, exceptions were made. If for instance a student was doing History, Geography, English and Art, then they would get extra print credits.

 

By the time I left, we had basically given up on that, as students had to pick on departments (with a random selectable one on the top of the list which was monitored). Department heads then looked at who printed that month and reported to us any students abusing the system.

[noelmm]

We allocate a certain amount each month to our students, if they need anymore credit one of their teachers need to email us requesting we add more credit on, at this point the credit is added onto the account for free. I don't believe you should charge pupils who are using the printers as intended i.e. school work, if the students are printing other stuff off you should be able to run a report to verify what is being printed and the lock the students account if needed.

[leegcvcc]

We appear really tight with our credits! Students are allocated £2 a term and Years 10-11 get £4 a term. 16-18 get £4.50 a term. When they run out, Finance dept have £1 vouchers with a code that the student redeems on a PC. Works well. Parents pay that online.

Staff are allocated to a group that they teach as can teach multiple subjects

Budget Holder gets a summary every month of prints/copies against their budget so can see who prints a lot and can query. Works well here and everyone is well versed after being totally clueless who prints what and where and when

[leegcvcc]

We allocate a certain amount each month to our students, if they need anymore credit one of their teachers need to email us requesting we add more credit on, at this point the credit is added onto the account for free. I don't believe you should charge pupils who are using the printers as intended i.e. school work, if the students are printing other stuff off you should be able to run a report to verify what is being printed and the lock the students account if needed.

All they need to do is save their picture of the Head with Elton JOhn glasses, Afro and pink lipstick as "History Homework" and it looks legit.... unless you archive and look up every filename they've ever printed to verify it's as it's named.

[LTurner3692]

All they need to do is save their picture of the Head with Elton JOhn glasses, Afro and pink lipstick as "History Homework" and it looks legit.... unless you archive and look up every filename they've ever printed to verify it's as it's named.

 

95% dont think about doing all that to get away with it!

[noelmm]

All they need to do is save their picture of the Head with Elton JOhn glasses, Afro and pink lipstick as "History Homework" and it looks legit.... unless you archive and look up every filename they've ever printed to verify it's as it's named.

 

Your right, however teaching staff could also do that. Sometimes we have to educate the students and staff and then trust in them to do the right thing, plus as already said most people don't think of that.

[localzuk]

How are schools justifying charging for materials required for education, counter to the Education Act?

 

We have print archiving enabled, so we can see exactly what children have printed, limit their printing each week and if they ask for more we can look at what they've printed to see if they've wasted it. If they have wasted it, that would then be a normal disciplinary issue (just like wasting paint or glue in art/dt). If they've used it for work, they get more prints.

[TechMonkey]

How are schools justifying charging for materials required for education, counter to the Education Act?

 

We have print archiving enabled, so we can see exactly what children have printed, limit their printing each week and if they ask for more we can look at what they've printed to see if they've wasted it. If they have wasted it, that would then be a normal disciplinary issue (just like wasting paint or glue in art/dt). If they've used it for work, they get more prints.

 

This is what we used to do at a previous place. Give them an allocation, termly/monthly, that is fair and then they have to come and request from the IT department if they want more. You got to recognise the kids that were genuine and a quick look in Papercut would show. If they had been taking liberties a dressing down was normally sufficient, but I can't recall anyone who was actually denied. Worst case would probably have been wait a week and use your new allocation more wisely. If they were desperate because of homework and they had been wasting them it would have been referred to the teacher and then they could decide, so the teacher knew that the student hadn't been properly organised.

[leegcvcc]

Your right, however teaching staff could also do that. Sometimes we have to educate the students and staff and then trust in them to do the right thing, plus as already said most people don't think of that.

Yes, agree, i was just pointing out that it's not as simple as running a report based on filename printing. We have very little wastage and abuse because we're so tight (but adequate due to the very small numbers that purchase extra credits) and their credits need managing by themselves more carefully.. which they now do.

[Ditto]

Interesting points in this thread. Recently joined a new school and they give 50p credit and then charge (at about 5p p/p for B&W and more for colour). Pupil premium is managed but it was a slight surprise to me but haven't heard of any complaining so far.