To be shocked at a school in dire financial straits is giving its staff new iPads ?

[WhateverHappenedToWinceyWillis]

Hopefully they are sponsored and have not come out of budget but even so it sits rather uneasily.

It is a very challenging school so maybe it is an attempt to boost morale and stil even more staff from leaving.

They won't have given the staff iPads. They may have invested in iPads for the staff to use as part of their job. What exactly is your objection to schools investing in up to date IT equipment?

How do you know the school's in dire financial straits?

Sometimes funding is earmarked I think, and schools don't get much choice over where to spend it.

So, it could be that they in general don't have any money but they have £X which has to be spent on IT or staff CPD or whatever.

My objection would be that iPads are very expensive. That money could be spent on resources to be used by all the pupils in the school.
Id far rather a multitude of resources were bought for the kids to play with and enjoy than a load of technology.

Sad that people equate success with modern equipment. Up to date IT equipement does not a good school make! iPads are a wonderful resource but not something a school teacher needs imho. (though I can see why they might want one)

Up to date IT equipement does not a good school make!

No, but it helps to keep it within this century....

The school that I work in has recently received 10 free iPads for staff/student use with an order of laptops/software that we have placed. Perhaps it's like that?

There are training courses on how to use an iPad in your classroom, I think they can be linked to an interactive whiteboard. Plus individual pupils can also use them as a resource/learning tool.
Stop teacher bashing!
Ps I'm a teacher.

They're probably entitled to some sort of grant, so either the iPads or nothing. If it's a deprived area, they get loads of ICT grants.

YANBU Chalk and a blackboard was all the teachers at my school needed.

Do you have any detail (at all)?

As others have siad, there are often tightly ring-fenced sources of funding for specific things - it's not a case of "could have been spent on something else", because it couldn't. Without knowing the detail, it comes over as being a bit 'playground gossip'.

Chalk and a blackboard was all the teachers at my school needed

Schools have moved on.

Maybe it's an attempt to improve teaching by giving teachers access to all the wonderful teaching apps you can access on an ipad. They do link up to projectors for use on a whiteboard.

Why not ask the governors where the money came from, and for an explanation as to why and how the staff will be using them?

iPads are excellent teaching tools. Teachers having access to them benefits the children. They are for the benefit of pupils.

My friend's school got them free. It's the drug dealer model. Microsoft has used it for years. They let education establishments use MS software for free (or v v cheaply), and their payback is that the pupils grow up using it, so buy it when adults. I imagine Apple is trying the same.

Your op stinks of innacuracy tbh.
I have never heard of any school giving it's staff iPads, laptops etc. I have heard of many schools having a bank of resources which are loaned to staff. Often these have been sponsored or heavily subsidised anyway.

YABU, investing in technology is vital if you want your children to get a chance of employment.

A schools most expensive resource is its teaching staff. If the school can help retain staff by giving them access to up-to-date IT and other resources then good for them.

Also iPads are probably easier to lock away safely at night than hefty desktops or even laptops.

And as others have said, it may have come from a pot of money that was ringfenced, and IT needs to be refreshed every so often.

So teachers shouldn't be able to draft lesson plans and schemes of work on the journey to and from school, shouldn't have easy access to learning resources, shouldn't be able to scan in a few assignment to mark rather than risk a bag being stolen. This is the 21st century. They are using them to prepared resources for your children efficiently and effectively.

Ipads can be used in ways that improve teaching and learning, better still when the children have them too. This is possible via ICT loans and the repayments are small and manageable, free to the lowest income etc.

ICT in schools has traditionally been a huge cost and giving out ipads is much cheaper than buying and maintaining old fashioned ICT suites. It will be the schools who are the least adaptive to new learning methods and to cost savings who maintain their ICT suites the longest.

Sorry op but you say you "know" the school is in finacial difficulties but you don't "know" who is fundingt the ipads.

Without the correct facts YABU

iPads are not very expensive and could save a lot of time. The teacher's canuse the for all their computer needs and to power white boards etc. It could be the computers needed up grading anyway, and these will improve efficiency. The worst waste is lots of computers that don't get used because they are too complex or awkward to use.

I wonder if I jump up and down at work tomorrow SLT will relent and give me one to play with because my other work presents are boring now.

Perhaps the OP thinks the iPads were an end of year gift so that staff can play Angry Birds in their PPA time.