Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel computer scheme in school seems a tad unethical

37 replies

Yougetwhatyouget · 03/07/2025 15:05

Child will start secondary next year and we got an email about getting them a Chromebook for a little under £500. I asked a few questions & established

  • School will use computers for work in lessons
  • She can’t take the tablet she already has to use in school as it has to be a Chromebook from this supplier with specific software
  • If she doesn’t have one we buy it’s not guaranteed the school can provide one to students on a 1:1 basis
  • Any payment schemes are at over 10% APR

We will buy one but this doesn’t feel very much like a voluntary scheme as it’s like buy this or have your child disadvantaged and the laptops seem very expensive (I know they come with insurance and it’s not a ludicrous price but it is a lot). I’m not suggesting this is unusual but more just pondering how stuff like this and the stupid school uniform demands that result in people spending a fortune on badged stuff are so prevalent.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Original poster
Yougetwhatyouget · 04/07/2025 16:45

Candlemidnight · 04/07/2025 11:51

You're also paying for the support of the laptop as well in the price of the purchase. This should be for 3? years? depending on what you get.

Yes. I’m not really suggesting the price is that appalling (though I do think it’s quite expensive) but it’s more the short window to decide for next school year & the pressure to get one due to the lack of other options. We’ve already bought both of ours iPads for First/Middle school and I’m torn between not buying for now and seeing how it goes and getting one.

OP posts:
Candlemidnight · 04/07/2025 11:51

You're also paying for the support of the laptop as well in the price of the purchase. This should be for 3? years? depending on what you get.

Profpudding · 04/07/2025 11:37

This happened in my daughter’s school except it was MacBook pros not 500 quid chrome books
Some kid kicked a footy across the room, knocked her laptop off the desk smashed to smithereens
I then got called in because my daughter said I was going to go mad at her and given a lecture on child abuse for the rant that I hadn’t yet had.

Mrsttcno1 · 04/07/2025 11:35

northernredrose · 04/07/2025 11:27

I agree that it seems incredibly unethical. My little one is only starting reception in September, but just looked and it appears that our local high school seems the same. Crazy when she’ll get free school lunches and we don’t even have to send a pencil in. Apparently, inequality for children from poor backgrounds is ok at secondary school. And I think very little of them encouraging/enabling parents to get into (possibly further) debt with the finance scheme. It’s so bizarre that they think it’s morally ok. No idea what you could do about it though.

Lots of schools who do this will also offer a cheaper/free option to those in financial hardship, on free school meals etc so that they don’t miss out. One of our local comp’s allows parents to apply to hardship fund which then pays for the laptops or you can apply and do a “pay what you can afford” if certain conditions are met (usually things like free school meals, UC etc). It’s obviously still not great but there are options.

SerendipityJane · 04/07/2025 11:30

It’s so bizarre that they think it’s morally ok.

It's a long established rule in capitalist societies that morals are subservient to profit.

northernredrose · 04/07/2025 11:27

I agree that it seems incredibly unethical. My little one is only starting reception in September, but just looked and it appears that our local high school seems the same. Crazy when she’ll get free school lunches and we don’t even have to send a pencil in. Apparently, inequality for children from poor backgrounds is ok at secondary school. And I think very little of them encouraging/enabling parents to get into (possibly further) debt with the finance scheme. It’s so bizarre that they think it’s morally ok. No idea what you could do about it though.

SerendipityJane · 04/07/2025 10:59

mumda · 03/07/2025 21:55

Id want to know why someone is getting rich from it.

Because it's illegal not to.

I only half jest.

Original poster
Yougetwhatyouget · 03/07/2025 22:22

So I got an email reply just now to some questions I sent the school. It seems much of the additional cost links to the laptops being covered for theft or accidental damage. In case they break the kids can switch out for a school one while theirs is repaired. While I’m a bit irritated by the whole thing and agree it’s not amazing value £200 also isn’t appalling for a software licence & 5 years of damage insurance. In a twist another parent asked the head of year and was told it was ok to bring a non scheme device so I guess my next thing is to forward on the mails from the IT guy and head of year we each have and ask head teacher to clarify which is correct. I swear you couldn’t make up the organisational chaos of all our local schools. The staff are lovely, the quality of teaching is by all accounts great (as it has been in their existing schools) & so much effort goes into providing extracurricular activities and opportunities for the kids but the communication to parents and the joined up thinking is often very lacking.

OP posts:
Anotherparkingthread · 03/07/2025 21:56

Please don't buy a Chromebook under this scheme it will be utterly crap and worth a fraction of what you're being asked to pay.

mumda · 03/07/2025 21:55

Id want to know why someone is getting rich from it.

Original poster
Yougetwhatyouget · 03/07/2025 21:45

Teanbiscuits33 · 03/07/2025 17:56

Why can’t you buy one of the same model and spec elsewhere? Is it because they’ve backed you into a corner with the software? You’re right, it is unethical to make you pay over the odds from a school supplier. Tell them you don’t have that kind of money. There will be people who don’t and they can’t let someone do without if it will limit their access to education. I’d consider also making a complaint by email to the school.

Yep they’ve said they can’t support other devices as the scheme ones come with a Chrome Management licence which allows them to apply settings and security settings globally and remotely. It feels off to me. If us paying more subsidises the school getting some to use for anyone that can’t buy one I don’t really object to that but I do if it’s mostly going to some 3rd party supplying them.

OP posts:
Katemax82 · 03/07/2025 20:23

My daughter has an iPad they charge me £13.50 a month for for 4 years

Cyanometer · 03/07/2025 20:19

We got a new Chromebook, and it looks like garbage a few years later. I think it might be beyond reconditioning 😄.

It was £400 I think.

iamgoingthere · 03/07/2025 20:10

I would think it’s reconditioned Chromebooks too. Suppliers will be taking it in. I have no idea why schools do this, unless they get kickbacks too.

legoplaybook · 03/07/2025 18:28

Not a chance would I agree to this!

My kids have perfectly good (cheap) devices at home to do homework on. School needs to provide whatever they need in school.

RH1234 · 03/07/2025 18:26

£500 for a Chromebook is ridiculous.

You’re paying for their software licenses and for those that can’t buy them so they have spares for other students.

DedododoDedadada · 03/07/2025 18:25

Chromebooks are rubbish but regardless schools shouldn't be putting pressure on parents for this type of equipment.

Rewis · 03/07/2025 18:20

In my nephews school, the school provides chromebook for students.

bellamorgan · 03/07/2025 18:15

I wouldn’t be paying £500 for a Chromebook. They are rubbish at the best of times let alone buying it overpriced.

Most schools locally seem to of phased out the mandatory iPads and Chromebooks.

School should really if they want them provide them all and require deposits if they leave school premises.

They could even fund raise to help fund the original costs.

Love51 · 03/07/2025 18:14

We had this offer and didn't take it. Our kids can also take normal chrome books to school. They don't. I don't want hundreds of pounds worth of kit thrown around when they sling their bag (dc1) , or left on the bus (DC2) . Neither child has once complained about this (and they would if it was a problem). Honestly see how managing without goes. You can always get one in later years if you need to.

Cyanometer · 03/07/2025 18:14

itsmeafterall · 03/07/2025 18:12

I just bought my mum a brand new Chromebook for £160. £500 is madness.

Well, someone is making money. I just don't think it's the school.

We did feel a bit tied in, like it was the only workable option. I can't quite remember the details really.

itsmeafterall · 03/07/2025 18:12

I just bought my mum a brand new Chromebook for £160. £500 is madness.

SerendipityJane · 03/07/2025 18:11

Some people may need things like screen readers to be able to operate a tablet/PC.

An awful lot of very cheap software breaks these. Meaning someone who has vision or cognition problems can't use the tablet as the aid and adaptation they require.

Only today, I had someone ask me to look at the "Livi" crap app for booking a GP "appointment" which breaks all manner of things on an iPad.

SerendipityJane · 03/07/2025 18:08

DS's school is similar, but it don't think they profit from the scheme.

If a school is profiting from the scheme then something has gone terribly wrong.

It's the vendors that have to profit - and handsomely. Why else are they involved in the education sector ? It's hardly for their health.

modgepodge · 03/07/2025 18:05

Honestly - assuming this scheme is advertised before applications, I’d suspect they’re trying to avoid certain types of family even applying. Expensive uniforms serve the same purpose - put poorer families (who statistically won’t do as well in exams) off applying.

I’m not saying I agree and I’m not saying all poor children do badly in exams of course, but there is a correlation between wealth and exam results and IMO some schools try to select based on wealth in this way.