Does your dc's school use iPads?

SheBlackhawk doesn't it replace textbooks and lots of paper? I thought it would make the bag much lighter.

Private secondary, and yes, IPad for each student, take them home included in the fees. They use them in class, mostly specially selected apps by school, school email, planner, etc.

Honestly? I hate it. It's an added weight in his bag which is already back bending without it and has brought into his life imessaging from his mates which did not use to be a distraction during homework.

Sec. school (state) does not have them. Our parents would revolt if it were suggested.

I am thinking of a family who are in debt merely to send their son to the school (out of catchment bus fares). That's why folk would rebel.

However the kids are often invited to use their mobiles in class, to browse or calculate, etc. You can buy a refurb'd iPad2 for £90 now, so similar price to a new mobile.... only less robust/easier to bash.

Mine have them and tbh I'd rather they didn't. My 12 yo is upstairs "doing homework" but is also on facetime with friends and watching stuff on BBC iPlayer. It's really hard to police as she has to have the ipad for homework (they do do written work; it's more that the homework tasks and various school apps are online) and she can't do it downstairs in the kitchen else WW3 would break out with her siblings. The school gives them out even for the young ones - the KS1 children have just got theirs although at least they only come home some nights.

I get my students to make movies on them to demonstrate understanding of difficult topics.

Ah yes, I remember those - they would waste a whole day at the weekend to create a movie to "learn" something that my son could have learned within half an hour by traditional methods. (Not to mention the pain of finding/downloading a suitable movie maker software that we didn't have to pay for). Horrible time.

Thank goodness, DS is now in year 10 and they've given up on those trendy faddish learning activities. Now they just learn stuff properly, far more quickly, by more traditional methods and make much faster progress.

Sorry to the trendies on here, but movie making, powerpoints etc just suck up a lot of time and effort for no real benefit. Yes, they may be helpful for "some" pupils who have trouble learning traditional methods, but for the majority who can learn from books, worksheets, etc., they're just a time consuming distraction.

OECD evidence suggests that heavy investment in technology is not associated with improved results:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34174796

Also, schools mostly force parents to pay for the kit, in schemes that works out way more expensive than if they bought it themselves:
www.theguardian.com/education/2016/aug/09/back-to-school-bill-ipad-technology-parents

On top of that, schools often buy equipment but then teachers aren't trained to use it effectively meaning the iPad is simply used as a worksheet replacement.

Noble, could not disagree more.
I teach at state secondary with ipad for all scheme. Parents pay per month, those students entitled to pupil premium get them free.
Prior to that we had a very limted number of IT suites, they were mostly always booked so you never get a slot, if you could then inevitably one of two of the computers would be not working, or missing a mouse or something so you had to have 2 kids at some stations.
The ipads are great, they act as electronic planners, with notifications for homework, you can easily contact a single student, a class, a year group etc with an email as you know everone will get it and read it.
The online textbooks we use are fab, they have lots of extra resources avaiable online to the student, including ones for revision that mark the students attempts so they get instant feedback. Every student has access to these, previously we had 16 GCSE textbooks for my subject, that had to be shared amongst 2 year groups and 9 sets per year. Mostly when you attempted to book them someone else wanted them too. The students could not take them home to use.
You can use them to share worksheets, and have students complete work on them and mark it on the iPad.
I get my students to make movies on them to demonstrate understanding of difficult topics.
They can easily do 3-5 mins of Internet research without having to move to an IT room.
They can watch different clips/videos dependent on their level, ditto worksheets, much less obvious to others if they need a more supportive approach
They all always have a miniwhiteboard with a functioning pen and rubber, because it is on the iPad.
There are fantastic revision apps available
Etc etc etc
Our behind the times school is in the top 5% nationally for progress 8.
That is not to say this could not happen on tablets, but i think all the kids need the same device to make it work properly.

DS's state school uses them. Parents pay £20 per term for 3 years then the ipads are assigned over to the parent. If you can't afford the £20 per term there are ipads available for use in school.

Some teachers use them a lot, some teachers don't use them at all. My ds is now in Y10 and they hardly use them but they did use them quite heavily before that.

I was about to ask why this school is about 4 years behind the times.

iPads for all in the classroom has already been mostly abandoned. A fad that didn't deliver for the expense.

There is a secondary school near me where the whole school is iPad enabled and every child has one. They have win a lot of awards for technology so I guess this is the future.
Our primary have 30 so that each child in the class has one when they are working on them.

DH is a teacher, and points out that, while iPads are expensive, they're cheaper than employing an extra teacher, and give the school something to show off about on Open Night. He thinks they're pretty pointless.

I think it would make much more sense, if the school insists on using devices like this, to go for Android - much cheaper and more flexible (eg you can have multiple users signing in, so could have a teacher account and pupil accounts on the same device). They're also compatible with cheaper accessories, and don't tend to become defunct so quickly. But iPad sounds flashier, I guess.

Ours (state) have to take their own 'device' and have done for about 3 years now. It was to have a full keyboard so they suggest Chromebooks rather than tablets. They do a lot of their homework etc on them and access texts instead of having textbooks. They are supposed to take them to school everyday but it sounds like in reality that doesn't happen.

My children's school (independent) goes from 5-18. All pupils are issued an iPad in yr 3 and from yr5 they can take them home. There is no additional cost to us, the insurance is also covered. The initial novelty wears off and now they are very much part of their school 'kit'. I teach at the school and have mixed feelings about how necessary they are but they can be very useful for research etc. My Yr 8 son does some of his homework on his but also has to do lots that is handwritten. He will be moving to a school in yr 9 that doesn't provide the tech but apparently most children will bring their own laptop or iPad.

My DCs independent secondary uses them. They are paid in addition to school fees with a contract with the parents so we own the iPads. It is mandatory.

The insurance, devices and robust cases cost £30 per month for each child on a 4 or 5 year contract, I can't remember which.

I am still undecided as to what I think of them and this our 3rd year using them.

Surbiton High are massive users of ipads
afaik they have replaced all textbooks
their exercise books are now "learning journals" - not full of pages of exercises which are all done on the ipad
useful for watching (educational!) videos, web links etc in class - better than trying to see the whiteboard

they are handed out free (well in the fees) to all new girls on day 1 of yr7 and are their's. But the school has full control of what is loaded on and can see everything if they want to.

i hear it's good, they get a lot of input (maybe a test school? not sure) from the google educational dept.

At DD's school they all have individual iPads which they take home. They are insured by the school and they do use them in lessons I assume, as she frequently prints stuff off from in on our home printer. I quite like it tbh.

And don't get me started on the awful MyMaths online app. If you get just one question wrong, you have to go through the whole damn section again, doing all the questions types you previously got right, which just wastes a hell of a lot of time and demoralises the poor sod doing it.

Not to mention that it doesn't help prepare you to write full answers on an exam paper - it actually encourages you to scribble rough workings or use mental arithmetic so you risk losing marks in an exam if you don't show your workings properly, at a time when it's said that getting the answer right won't get you full marks anymore if your workings aren't clear!!!

And while I'm on a roll, what's the point of the school setting up an online homework system if the teachers can't be arsed to put the homework on it and then hand out detentions like smarties when the poor kids havn't done the homework that wasn't put on the online system????

At the moment, the technology is being used in a lazy half hearted way.

At our DS school, some departments have bought ipads for use in their lessons only. They're a pain in the arse. DS hates them. Basically, all they use them for in lessons is to look at online text books, which my son finds really hard because of the small size of the screen (smaller than the text book page) so he has to constantly re-size to read, and then flipping from section to section, to the index, to the answers, etc is a right pain. He'd far rather use a paper text book as flipping between pages/sections is far easier. Trouble with most online text books is that they're just a pdf version of the book itself, so just an image with no hyperlinks etc. IF, and it's a big IF, there were some decent online resources written specifically for use on a tablet they'd be far more useful. As it is, we've actually bought paper copies of the online textbooks which my son finds far easier to use. Luckily, most departments didn't go down to ipad route and continue to use paper text books!

My year 4 child takes his own iPad to school as do others in his class. For those without, there are devices to share.

My teenager takes her own Microsoft surface pro as do all the other students, it is a requirement.

Do I think it enhances their learning? A bit, yes, once the school gets the hang of managing the technology or charging, secure storage, technical issues.

DD's school has them - private secondary, so they are issued 'free', i.e. included in the fees, and the children bring them home every day.

DD seems to have mixed feelings about them - some of the software they use seems to be useful, but there are regular technical glitches (some things you can only load/update while on the school wifi network for security reasons etc). Also they are difficult to type on for longer pieces of work, but if you use a home windows PC to do school work it is not always compatible with the iPad software. They also do not seem to have replaced textbooks to any great extent, which I thought was one of the main ideas - she still has a massively heavy backpack full of books to take to school most days.

I think really a lot of it depends on what the school expects to use them for, and how well trained all the teachers are in keeping up with the tech side of things to make the best use of them.

DC school have them, one each which you can buy when they leave. I have mixed feelings tbh as although it is great communication tool it isn't so great for writing essays and coursework and encourages over dependence.

Ds's primary school had them,the kids used them from reception onwards,they remained in school.

Now ds is at high school they use their phones.

Yes DS school uses them and they are very useful and used all the time. The school arranged an insured package so you could buy one through that or you could just buy your own with minimum specs required. Plus a case. Been a pretty good success from what I have seen.

My sons school has them (private secondary)
I remember their introduction and lots of parents were dubious but they seem to be a success. I am not a tech person but the school has special software to interact with pupils.
It is great for homework and for sports information for the kids etc.