Disadvantaged children across England are set to receive laptops and tablets

[Theblacksheep]

Has anybody managed to apply for more without doing it one by one?

 

I've no replies to my email to the DFE this week, I'd imagine they are snowed out

 

Email response has changed to 4 days and an email I sent on Monday got a reply on Saturday.

[IT_JB]

Just got my DfE invitation email to place an order for the remaining devices, managed to get some Dell laptops this time thankfully.

[ifarmery]

I got sent this link https://forms.gle/QzMTyJQSkfLa9ELSA when asking for more devices or 4g routers. Sent email as well to get the ticket id.

[elsiegee40]

Covid-19: Williamson promises 300,000 extra laptops https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55634558

[Meldrew]

Primary?

 

There on the back burner for another week.

 

I managed to just sneak my last lot in before they enforced it i think!

 

Secondary, actually. It says we have 22 available to order for a particular school, so I make an order for 22, wait a week to be told the order is cancelled because 22 exceeds the allocation of 22 we've been given. Apparently 22>22 = true.

[localzuk]

Secondary, actually. It says we have 22 available to order for a particular school, so I make an order for 22, wait a week to be told the order is cancelled because 22 exceeds the allocation of 22 we've been given. Apparently 22>22 = true.

I had that too. And when I emailed them back, they said "Yes that's right" and listed our orders which they hadn't actually cancelled. Very odd.

[Theblacksheep]

Covid-19: Williamson promises 300,000 extra laptops https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55634558

 

Orders went in this week, coming into the country late Jan early feb.

[mikeprice]

Sounds like the magic laptop tree that people think you all have in a cupboard somewhere was actually in Whitehall

 

if only we had known!!!

[StevieM]

Apparently, the 20 iPads we ordered in November won’t be available until February, now. We’ve been told we can swap to Windows secured/unsecured laptops/tablets. I’m thinking the Dell Latitude secured laptop would be one we could get out to the kids the quickest? Any other thoughts from anyone? We’re a KS2 only school and the children will be using them mostly to access resources on Seesaw.

[LeMarchand]

Apparently, the 20 iPads we ordered in November won’t be available until February, now. We’ve been told we can swap to Windows secured/unsecured laptops/tablets. I’m thinking the Dell Latitude secured laptop would be one we could get out to the kids the quickest? Any other thoughts from anyone? We’re a KS2 only school and the children will be using them mostly to access resources on Seesaw.

 

We had the HP secured ones initially (very low quantities). I think this school had only two! (One of which had it's screen broken over summer and the other has been returned without its charger). Currently have around 60 Samsungs (Head's pick) which I hope are set up the same way, as a load had already been handed out before I got to this site today. All pupils have O365 accounts, so didn't see any need to do anything beyond they way they're already set up.

 

Apart from lack of care type problems, the only "technical" thing I've had to do at the two schools that had such devices was to quote from Page 2 of the guidance.

 

Logging back into the operating system

 

The devices have no passwords set up. If you've logged out of the operating system, you

can log back in with the username ".\localuser". Type the username carefully-the.\ before

localuser is part of the username.

 

Quite a few times - expecting the need to ramp up with so many more.

 

Wonder

 

a) If more students with laptops means fewer on site?

b) How many will get damaged?

 

This school KS2, other that had Windows machines I think the recipients were all KS2.

[jmak]

Share your experiences of school laptop provision during the pandemic

 

We would like to hear from teachers, parents and students on their experiences around laptop provision for children remote learning across the UK

 

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jan/13/share-your-experiences-of-school-laptop-provision-during-the-pandemic?

 

Wasn't sure which thread to put this in, but pretty certain there are people with views they'd like to share!

[enjay]

We had the HP secured ones initially (very low quantities). I think this school had only two! (One of which had it's screen broken over summer and the other has been returned without its charger). Currently have around 60 Samsungs (Head's pick) which I hope are set up the same way, as a load had already been handed out before I got to this site today. All pupils have O365 accounts, so didn't see any need to do anything beyond they way they're already set up.

 

Much the same here, although we've logged in and installed fat client Office for them too, as some students don't have great Internet service or are using hotspots.

 

Apart from lack of care type problems, the only "technical" thing I've had to do at the two schools that had such devices was to quote from Page 2 of the guidance.

 

Much the same here! And emphasising which \ it is. Yes they're different. Yes it matters. Yes I know you've probably never typed the \ one before.

[ITGuyNW]

We've had a couple of the HP laptops returned so they can be redistributed to other Pupils. Has anyone else done this? Are they setup with any easy reset or is it just the case of going through them and wiping manually? I want to leave it with the usual localuser auto login

[Garacesh]

We've had a couple of the HP laptops returned so they can be redistributed to other Pupils. Has anyone else done this? Are they setup with any easy reset or is it just the case of going through them and wiping manually? I want to leave it with the usual localuser auto login

 

We've had one or two, my process is:

Remove known networks

From the Start Menu, access the Settings menu, select Network & Internet, then WiFi, and finally Manage Known Networks. Delete all networks.

 

Browser properties & history

Internet Explorer

Execute inetcpl.cpl from a Run prompt, navigate to the Advanced tab, select Reset… and tick Delete personal settings, then click Reset.

Google Chrome

Open Chrome and access the settings menu from the three dots in the upper-right-hand corner, then select Settings. Select Privacy and Security and then Clear browsing data. From this new menu, select the Advanced tab, change Time range to All time, tick every category, and select Clear data.

Expand Advanced from the left hand menu and select Reset and clean up. Select Restore settings to their original defaults, then click Reset settings.

If the user has signed in to Chrome (as indicated by the user icon next to the Settings menu), click the user icon, then click the cog icon next opposite Other people. Hover the mouse pointer over any and all accounts and select the three dots in the upper right hand corner, then Remove this person.

Microsoft Edge

Chances are the pupil won’t have used Edge*. Skip this section if Edge displays a first-run prompt upon launch.

Navigate to the settings menu via the 3 dots in the upper right hand corner and select Settings. Select Profiles from the left-hand menu, and click the 3 dots next to any and all profiles, then Remove.

Navigate back to the Settings menu and select Reset settings from the left-hand menu. Finally, select Restore settings to their default values.

Finally, select the Privacy, search and services option from the left-hand menu, then in the Clear browsing data section, click Choose what to clear. Set the time range to All time, check all of the boxes, and click Clear now.

 

Clear user files

Remove all files on the Desktop, and any user directories (Documents, Pictures, etc)

Remove all files in %TEMP%

Remove all shortcuts in the Quick Access/Recent Files list.

 

* For us, anyway, we're a G Suite school.

(If anyone thinks I've missed anything, give me a shout!)

Edited January 19, 2021 by Garacesh

[LansITGuy]

Just had a laptop sent back with a smashed screen. Obviously out of warranty with that one. I assume it's up to the school to fix?

 

No spare units to give to the family as they've all gone out and it doesn't look like we're holding families in anyway accountable.

[kennysarmy]

Just had a laptop sent back with a smashed screen. Obviously out of warranty with that one. I assume it's up to the school to fix?

 

No spare units to give to the family as they've all gone out and it doesn't look like we're holding families in anyway accountable.

 

I've heard of one family who sold theirs!

[Garacesh]

Just had a laptop sent back with a smashed screen. Obviously out of warranty with that one. I assume it's up to the school to fix?

 

No spare units to give to the family as they've all gone out and it doesn't look like we're holding families in anyway accountable.

 

I've had this discussion with my management today. As far as we're concerned, every laptop we received from the DfE was allocated to a child. The concept of a "spare" doesn't exist. To hand a pupil a 2nd laptop is to deprive another of what they are entitled to. The child was entitled to a device, and that is what we provided. Therefore, we shan't be doing it.

 

What I actually translate from that is the parent will whinge at SLT until they finally relent, but that's not my problem and it's SLT that are going to deal with it.

Edited January 19, 2021 by Garacesh

[LeMarchand]

We replaced one screen. Parent had the cheek to complain that it took a few days (wasn't high on the agenda as it was little-used). Loads more out now, so expecting more back.

[MYK-IT]

Just had a laptop sent back with a smashed screen. Obviously out of warranty with that one. I assume it's up to the school to fix?

 

No spare units to give to the family as they've all gone out and it doesn't look like we're holding families in anyway accountable.

 

£220 per device per repair if not covered by warranty!

 

[browolf]

Got one with a duff power supply. Who do I contact about that?

[dobsonl]

You need to email the [email protected] email address.

 

Be aware they are taking an extremely long time to reply!

[LeMarchand]

£220 per device per repair if not covered by warranty!

 

Isn't that more than the cost of a GeoBook?

[DrCheese]

Isn't that more than the cost of a GeoBook?

 

£50 is more than the cost of a Geobook...

[Scifigirl]

sorry to ask this again as i know its been asked - anybody have COMPUTACENTER (UK) LTD resellers number-- they aren't answering, and i at least want to get these in ASM before they disappear

 

Many thanks and hobnobs in advance

[enjay]

Parent had the cheek to complain that it took a few days

 

We had similar. PP co-ordinator phoned a parent at 3pm to say they could collect a laptop the next day. The parent said they wanted it now. When told no-one was on-site they argued saying they had recently phoned the school and spoke to Reception (fact is, the receptionists are working from home like the rest of us).

 

Did the parent at least acknowledge their child had broken the laptop? We had one laptop where "the screen has split, so my child can't see everything" - we took a look expecting some dual-screen mode or Win+Left style side-by-side view, not a massive crack top-to-bottom! The way students tell you they've forgotten their password always amuses me too.