DS(14) needs a laptop for school - any recommendations?

[ineedaholidaynow]

We have recently been advised that DS needs a laptop for school as he has a processing disorder, and that it should help speed up his work. He may also be able to use a school laptop for his exams. We have been told we should get something with 15 inch screen but no other requirements.

Can anyone recommend one? It will need to be reasonably lightweight, as his school bag already weighs a ton, but robust. We don't want to spend a fortune but want something with a good spec. so are happy to spend a reasonable amount.

Most of them would do you if it's not for games. I'd go for a Dell or an Acer with an intel i3 or i5 processor personally if going for something decent (but you could easily do with less if it's just school work). I don't trust HP build quality.
www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/dell-inspiron-15-3000-15-6-intel-core-i3-laptop-256-gb-ssd-silver-10190299-pdt.html

DD1 had one a few years back for school.

As well as lightweight&robust, you need good battery life and quick start up.

You need to know what word processing tool you want to use. DD used Wordpad so she didn't get used to spell checkers etc, but probably these days there is some recommendation.
Presumably he's not using it for maths? But if he is you need to know what software he might use to record that too.

DD2 tried one for a while, but really didn't get on with it, so is handwriting but with extra time.

It was DS's English teacher who first brought the issue up, so I am assuming he will be mainly using it for the essay type subjects. He always seems to cope with Maths and getting that work done in time.

Can someone explain to me how it works with subjects like Science where diagrams etc will be required?

The answer is that it is difficult.

There are two aspects to consider - day to day classes, and exams.

If you draw them by hand you then need to marry up the drawing with the electronic notes. Which leads on to how are things going to be printed out. Tables can also be an issue.
We also found that in class when they are given worksheets to fill in, even if given an electronic version it was still a bit of a pain.

DD1 ended up using laptop for writing heavy subjects (English, History, MFL written CAs) but not for maths and science.

People in Secondary Education may have helpful experience too.

We have a chemistry exam on next week where the kids that use computers will need to make a graph on the computer and import that into another document. It sounds complicated even to me. A lot of pupils don't do science exams on the computer, or they maybe only use them for the multiple choice and longer questions at the end, and hand do anything with diagrams or graphs.