Rob_D Posted October 20, 2020 Posted October 20, 2020 Is this a surprise to anyone?? clearly some school will have a worse problem than others - but it was always clear that 'some people' would refuse to give them back I presume that the people in charge have made plans for this (say this last bit is a sarcastic tone) Oh, when we started this we knew we'd be writing a percentage of them off. But it's still a pain not having most of our laptops while we try to get them back. Obviously they want to chase as much as possible before we shell out for new ones.
TIOAOA Posted October 20, 2020 Posted October 20, 2020 Finally got our email confirming we can order, login to techsource, no Chromebooks available
enjay Posted October 20, 2020 Posted October 20, 2020 Is this a surprise to anyone?? clearly some school will have a worse problem than others - but it was always clear that 'some people' would refuse to give them back I presume that the people in charge have made plans for this (say this last bit is a sarcastic tone) The laptops we've loaned are all ones which were due to be replaced in the next two years, so if a few don't come back, we can carry the loss. Perhaps "acceptable risk" is the phrase here.
paulkerton Posted October 20, 2020 Posted October 20, 2020 Are these DfE devices not attached to an MDM of some kind so you can disable them until they're returned? I wouldn't hand out Chromebooks to anyone, even DfE ones, if they weren't enrolled devices. If they're not going to be returned to you, you can at least make them entirely useless to anyone so they're not part of a pile of devices suddenly appearing in your nearest Cash Converters.
PyROm Posted October 20, 2020 Posted October 20, 2020 Can you still apply for dfe laptops if you are an LEA school? Our LEA has told us we cant as the scheme has ended, however they will lend us their spare social care ones, which unfortunately for us are all chromebooks which make it hard for our students to adapt to.
Ditto Posted October 20, 2020 Posted October 20, 2020 Finally got our email confirming we can order, login to techsource, no Chromebooks available I wonder if you went down the CloudyReady route from https://www.neverware.com/#intro if it would work? Of course, you'd need the appropriate permission I guess.
mavhc Posted October 21, 2020 Posted October 21, 2020 Are these DfE devices not attached to an MDM of some kind so you can disable them until they're returned? The HP laptop I got still had usb booting enabled, did you find that on yours? Plus you could always just remove the drive, install Windows elsewhere, and return it to the laptop.
Remiel Posted October 24, 2020 Posted October 24, 2020 Unbelievable process this - finally got authorisation to order 126 devices 2 weeks ago, our first try at ordering was cancelled by techsource with no notice given - only found out by checking the order status on the portal when nothing arrived 4 days later. Took nearly a week for them to reassign the devices to us ("you've already reached your 126 device order limit") only to then find out that "no Chromebooks were available for order at the moment but we're working on getting stock soon". Now we get news that not only can we not place an order over half term but that our allocation of 126 has been reduced to 25. Just don't know what to say without getting into a political rant...
Steve21 Posted October 24, 2020 Posted October 24, 2020 How comes you guys seem to be getting so many of these now after the lockdown, is there a second round to request them or something? Thought all the orders were done before summer hols Steve
southhamster Posted October 24, 2020 Posted October 24, 2020 Our reasonable allocation of 38 has now been cut to just 8! Now it's a legal requirement to deliver online learning taking away the resources is not helpful. I'm currently resurrecting some 9 year old Compaq's with Linux Mint for a couple of disadvantaged children. Strictly no support and no help though.
mavhc Posted October 24, 2020 Posted October 24, 2020 disadvantaged children. Strictly no support and no help though. Wow, that would disadvantage them
3s-gtech Posted October 24, 2020 Posted October 24, 2020 (edited) Over in Wales - we didn’t call back what we issued over lockdown, so the kids still have their laptops, but the sixth form also have them now. We issued our oldest kit that was due to retire, so we’ve not missed it. We have to wait until early 2021 for any replacement stuff to come, but the spec is far better than the junk mentioned here. The procurement process in Wales has been more carefully managed, but not a huge amount of money in the pot. Edited October 24, 2020 by 3s-gtech
FragglePete Posted October 24, 2020 Posted October 24, 2020 Our allocation has been cut from 47 devices down to 15 with this recent change! Crikey. Pete
dobsonl Posted October 25, 2020 Posted October 25, 2020 As a trust we are now only getting 19% of the devices
DrCheese Posted October 25, 2020 Posted October 25, 2020 How are they deciding which students are suddenly not eligible?
Primus Posted October 25, 2020 Posted October 25, 2020 I’m glad we claimed all of ours as soon as we could!
Achandler Posted October 26, 2020 Posted October 26, 2020 It's annoying that everyone is so desperate for laptops, as places like my place of work has literally 150+ desktops that will just be scrapped sat in storerooms as they replaced every computer with a personal issue laptop!
Zammo Posted October 26, 2020 Posted October 26, 2020 How are they deciding which students are suddenly not eligible? 1
enjay Posted October 26, 2020 Posted October 26, 2020 How are they deciding which students are suddenly not eligible? That's not quite how it works. Because schools aren't closing entire year groups as much, but telling smaller groups to self-isolate. You can then take those laptops back off those students when they stop self-isolating and give them to different students instead. That's the theory anyway, in reality I think it will be very difficult to get the laptops back in after two weeks... Where are you guys seeing your reduced allocation? I can't find mine.
3s-gtech Posted October 26, 2020 Posted October 26, 2020 It's annoying that everyone is so desperate for laptops, as places like my place of work has literally 150+ desktops that will just be scrapped sat in storerooms as they replaced every computer with a personal issue laptop! We’re hoping to build another IT suite using the retired desktops. Can you sell yours on?
Achandler Posted October 26, 2020 Posted October 26, 2020 We can do, but there is an opinion of time versus reward as well, so they like to bulk get rid of them.
pete Posted October 26, 2020 Posted October 26, 2020 Where are you guys seeing your reduced allocation? I can't find mine. Log into the site where you confirmed (or disputed) the laptop allocation and the type you've requested. You should see the allocation against each school has declined significantly: https://get-help-with-tech.education.gov.uk/sign-in
enjay Posted October 26, 2020 Posted October 26, 2020 Log into the site where you confirmed (or disputed) the laptop allocation and the type you've requested. You should see the allocation against each school has declined significantly: https://get-help-with-tech.education.gov.uk/sign-in Ah yes, under "check your school details". Where else would the information be?!
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