The Grammar school and their flipping iPads!

[Mumwithagreenhouse]

I have one DD who will be going into year 7 in September. When we looked at the school, we knew they used iPads within the school but nothing else was mentioned about them.
Got an email yesterday requesting I set up a direct debit for £13pm! I had no idea this was a case of purchasing one for DD, I just wrongfully assumed they were just used in school.

It’s not that I disagree with the concept of parents buying them exactly, it’s just the fact that they do not allow them to use their own. DD has one of the slightly larger iPad Pros (only because I won it and had no use for it) and it would be of much better use for her school work than the one they’re asking us to purchase and it’s fully insured for theft, loss or accidental damage, but nope. I was given a firm no by the school, they won’t budge!

So I HAVE to pay £13 per month, with an additional £7pm for the mandatory insurance and £3pm for the mandatory case plus an extra £8pm for the optional stylus! So that’s a mandatory £23pm or £31pm if she gets the supposedly optional but quite clearly expected, stylus.. Also, the fact that the school gets Pupil Premium for DD (free school meals although DD has packed lunch but I always apply for it anyway so that the school still get the funds!) apparently is “irrelevant” and being a child entitled to Pupil Premium doesn’t give us any kind of discount on the iPad purchase or any leniency on the ‘no already-owned iPads’ rule.

Is this all normal now? Am I old fashioned to think this is a little bit ridiculous? Perhaps I’m just still annoyed about them demanding that we pay £20 per month for PE and the fact that they now require they all wear school-branded trousers! (No skirts permitted). No no! You MUST wear the £38 trousers with the school logo on…..! I’m a widowed lone parent now on a low income and this is going to f’ing bankrupt me.

Please be nice, it’s a very long time since I was at high school and this is all new to me! I’m happy to be told (politely) that I’m wrong.

DDs’ school does similar for chrome books but mine had them when they started (for home learning through covid). No chance I’d buy a second one. I’d make sure it’s insured and send her with her own.

Unbelievable

It's perfectly normal to have a rule about no own-ipad-instead - the school supplied ones will have school admin control for restricting dodgy apps and monitoring website use, and the school will buy licences for specific software that they can only make available to school-supplied ipads not just any old one that you supply.

However it's totally unreasonable for them to not have a subsidy for pupil premium kids to get them either reduced price or free. That warrants a full set of complaints to school governors and your local councillors and MP that they are deliberately sabotaging access to education for kids from low income homes.

I would just tell them no, you can't afford to pay for it.
Have her hand it in at the end of the day. They are being really manipulative saying she'll be "singled out". That's disgraceful.
There is no way I'd be paying that and I wouldn't be paying 20 quid a month for PE either.

I stand corrected, it’s £30 per year for PE. Unsure why I thought it was £20pm

This comment is precisely why I posted on MN! Thank you. I’ll do exactly this! 🙏

It sounds like they have you over a barrel for the iPads. However I’d cancel the DD for PE. Both of DC’s schools tried that one but we never paid.

My sons school is an Ipad for learning school I purchased the Ipad via the school over 3 years (Y7-Y9) at £17 per month. This was for the ipad, case and the insurance, I paid a one off £30 for the apps and bought a cheap stylus off amazon. He has just fished year 11 and still uses the same ipad, he will use it during sixth form too.
However the ipad was ours to keep, the school disabled the restrictions at the end of each day and he could use it normally at home. Some of his friends used the loan ipads, they weren't singled out or made to feel different, the only issue with using the school loan ipads was completing and submitting homework but the school had a workaround for this.
My youngest is starting the same school in September and the fee is now £18 a month for the same deal.
Does the school have a pre loved uniform shop?
Can you find out the name of the Y7 pastoral lead and speak to or email them about your concerns, you won't be the only one feeling this way.

The PE charge is a voluntary contribution so just don't pay it. They won't be expecting pupils on FSM to contribute.

It was ultimately a purchase. She’s just finished Y11 and now it’s ours/hers to keep.

Also, not sure why you’re having to pay anything for PE?!

What county is this? My son is at a kent grammar. Branded blazer, tie and rugby shirt. That's it. All other uniform unbranded, standard pencil case equipment, nothing else needed. The whole point of grammar is a good affordable education for any child who passed the test to get in

Yanbu that's a lot of money to 'hire' an iPad. We earn okay and would struggle to pay that for 2 DC.

My children have schools iPads, every child is provided with them for FREE! They are a great resource, everyone has the same level of tech and they're locked to council IT systems so only able to access educational content. If they get broken or stolen then the school is insured for them, so we don't have that stress either (it can take some time to get it sorted but it won't cost us).

What's this £20pm for PE too, madness!! Here they can't charge for the core curriculum.

There are some comps round here that have a similar scheme but not as punative - you pay quite a lot per month for a couple of years but then you own the iPad. This is the most extreme version I've heard of.

Ignore the PE charge. If your child gets pupil premium there will be no expectation that you pay it.

If you haven't already, please do ask explicitly about help for pupil premium students. Maybe ask if it's possible to delay starting the payments or something - open up a conversation and see if they can relent on an individual basis. Sometimes the headline looks absolute but quietly exceptions can be made. Also see if you can connect with current parents, maybe through a FB group or asking incoming parents who have older children, and find out if the new iPad is really as essential and ubiquitous as they are telling you.

I work in a grammar school, assuming that we are talking a state grammar (there are a few schools with grammar in the name which are independent) then they cannot legally charge you for anything related to the core function of education or deprive you of anything that others get.

What grammars do, as state schools cannot request fees, is dress up these "fees" as voluntary contributions in the accounts.

Speak firmly to the Bursar / School Business Manager, and explain that you cannot afford the fee, and that you expect, as is your daughters right as a pupil in a state funded school that she has the same access to learning resources as her peers, and if she does not that you will write to the DFEE requesting your daughter is not penalised.

They will give your daughter the iPad to use at that point, I guarantee.

It would not bother me to be "that" parent because in life the squeaky gate gets the oil. If your DC is made to feel different because she has to hand the pad in it will teach resilience. Its a hard world and kids need to learn to tough it out . I had to when there was no money to put into those begging envelopes the school gave out. Kids who did not return the envelope with money in it were called out by the teacher. That would not be allowed now.

Nope that's totally ridiculous. It might be an option, if parents don't want to provide their own tablet, but if kids have a tablet, I don't see how the school can make you pay for another. I work in adult ed and we use Google Products so they work on any device the students have. The school should do this if they want the students to work at home.

Plus if you really want to mess with them, if you do pay (hopefully you won't, but if you do) ask for a receipt for your payment showing the VAT breakdown.

A school near me also has iPads but parents are allowed to take in a current one with everything wiped and the school will upload the stuff to it.
Kids on pupil premium get it for free.

No skirts?!

They can’t charge for PE it’s part of the curriculum. Have you reported them for this?

Also only a certain number of items are allowed to be logo now

Just say no. They can ONLY make a request for a voluntary contribution. And they should have arrangements to support people who are entitled to FSM.

It’s beyond cheeky, especially given the very low % of pupils at grammars who attract PP/ FSM. You also don’t have to pay for PE if it’s part of the school day. Only exception is voluntary contribution for swimming transport.

Just. Say. No.

And make it very clear you are aware of the rules around state schools and mandatory charges for essential educational items. The fact itll be an academy is neither here nor there, as there will be clauses in the funding agreement to hold them to the same standards as maintained schools.

That makes no sense. If it’s a school iPad they pay.

Mine in school in Ireland here. In the May before they go to secondary school and before they break up for summer we got a bill for 730 or thereabouts to pay for the school ipads and whatever is loaded onto them, to be paid in full asap so the kids had access to same from day one of secondary school. Not a private school, not a grammar school, not a catholic school just your run of the mill secondary school. We have 6 years of secondary school here and middle of 5th year the ipad died and we had to replace it through the same school channels and similar cost. Its not easy going this 'free schooling' we get told about.

Also, if they already have iPads and you can supply one, I cannot for the life of me think why they can’t install their own software on your IPad and allow your child to use that. This is what my son’s secondary school does with the PC he needs (althouhh it’s for additional needs - they don’t routinely use them in lessons).

I'm sure they wouldn't be the only one to leave behind? Do they need it at home?