Laptops for students

[Starbug1]

We have some laptops which are only intended for use within school. We only have a small number and are intended to be used when there is a specific need e.g. if the student has a learning disorder such as dylexia or a disability or injury which makes writing using a pen & paper difficult.

 

Occasionally staff will loan one to use at home, for example if a member of admin staff is required to work from home, or if a teacher's PC has broken and they ask for one to borrow for a short period until they obtain a replacement.

 

However we've had a new request to loan laptops for students to take home, for the following reason:

 

Students taking an OCR iMedia course were previously expected to do the coursework in school and were not able to do the work at home, but the exam board has now stated they can do the work from home, due to the coronavirus situation.

 

Some of our students would like to take advantage of this change in policy, but are unable to do so because they do not have laptops (or even if they do have laptops, they aren't able to run software such as Photoshop or Serif PhotoPlus etc).

 

Our subject leader feels that it would be unfair for those students to lose out on this opportunity, so would like the school to loan them out to students.

 

We have not loaned out laptops to students before, though we have done this with Chromebooks. So in theory we could amend our Chromebook agreement form and ask parents/students to sign this, and that would presumably cover us in the event of misuse/damage etc.

 

We don't have web filtering enabled on the laptops; does that make us liable if the student was to access sites they shouldn't, or would the signing of an agreement form negate any liability on our part?

 

Could the school could be seen to be acting in a discriminatory way if the school does not loan laptops to students in the circumstances described above?

 

I don't think a decision has been made yet and although it's not my decision I'd be interested to hear any views put forward and it would be interesting to hear if any schools have decided to loan students laptops for this reason, and also if any schools have decided not to.

[fiza]

The only time we have loaned any equipment to students is when they have had to self isolate or if there is hardship which means they do not have a device and/or internet at home to enable them to work. This has normally been funded by Pupil Premium or the DfE scheme introduced during lockdown.

[Starbug1]

We have a system in place for Chromebooks to be loaned out in the event of students islolating who do not have access to a device.

 

But the argument put forward for this specific course is that any student who does not have access to a PC/laptop that has either Serif PhotoPlus or Photoshop installed should be loaned a device, even if that student is in school, as it would be unfair to deny them the opportunity to work from home.

[fiza]

Do they not have other lessons that they need to be in school for or is Media their only subject?

Do you have enough laptops to loan to the Media students, staff and provide for the students who have learning requirements in school that need laptops?

I believe Students should be in School unless there is a reason, like self isolation, why they cant be in school. Should not be a choice really.

[LeMarchand]

Back in the XP days we had 1:1 laptops with no filtering, but this was at a Primary School. The AUP did include warnings about responsibility for inappropriate sites etc being down to the parent.

 

Discrimination? Purely a personal POV, but I would have said only if some were issued laptops and others weren't. I know one of my cousins was expected to stump up for Photoshop out of her own pocket if she wanted her kid to be able to do coursework at home (this was well before The Plague).

 

The only laptops loaned at any of my sites have been those provided by the government.