AIBU to think that schools shouldn't dish out detention to pupils who can't complete online homework as they do not have access to a pc or laptop at home?

[NellysKnickers]

As the title says, there is a homework club after school once a week but this keeps being cancelled. I've told DS1 if they do carry out the threat of detention then I will ring the school. Any teachers out there who can offer their point of view? as I'm failing to see the schools side in this.

I would not have thought it was lawful to deny an education on financial grounds

I do wonder if people even read the thread sometimes. How is the child being denied an education? Ridiculous thing to say. Education in the UK is free at point of service, dunno if you'd noticed that.

Let the school know he is experiencing difficulties completing online homework and ask if he can have a hard copy of it or dedicated access to a PC at school.

I would speak to the school now with a very open " how can we sort this out? approach before it becomes an issue. Perhaps they can suggest an alternative that can support your son, maybe something as simple as giving him some priority with the older pupils. They can't do this if they don't know.

Also a tablet is far cheaper than a desk top, software and printer. My basic samsung tablet cost 89 quid and my daughter had hers given to her by her grandparents for xmas. We live in an area where there are many of us on a low income. Many of dds friends don't own laptops or pc and as for buying a cheap laptop of ebay with no guarantee I don't think I'd risk precious money doing that.

'I do think it is unreasonable to expect people to have printers though...paper and ink are an ongoing cost and often not cheap. I would complain about that! '

I agree. Ink can be really expensive and many printers use ink cartridges with chips in them so you can't buy knock offs - the ink is more expensive than champagne.

'Your child can't do their GCSEs without a laptop or computer it's impossible. Do you smoke? Drink? I'm amazed that anyone thinks it's acceptable for a secondary school child not to have the means to learn. It's not a luxury.'

Unbelievably insulting to assume that people who cannot afford a laptop and computer with unlimited internet access and a printer are in that situation because they smoke and drink.

And how ironic, on any benefits thread it gets wheeled out 'Well, you have internet access.'

Thanks to all with the good advice, I haven't got much time this week but will try to find some to look into these ideas. Now going out for some rainy fresh air to have a ponder on what to do, I've tried to get more info out of ds1 but that's like getting blood out of a stone, he has however told me that at least half in his classes are in the same boat so he won't be alone in detention Just for the record I'm all for consequences for not doing good homework but if he physically can't, because of access to it, then that's not fair.

Rofl at using child benefit to buy a laptop. Ours goes on food and electric

Surely homework should be just that, and be able to be done at a time it's convenient and when kids are able to sit and concentrate! Lunch breaks are for eating and having a bit of a break imo... It can't be convenient for a child to travel often many miles to a library to complete a task when others new fortune can relax and do it in their own homes! Seems hugely unfair.

I was shocked to discover last year that it was cheaper to buy a new printer every time the ink ran out that it was to buy the ink. How on earth is that acceptable?

two suggestions.

A reconditioned laptop for Christmas, printer from family member maybe?
or
can he not stay behind after school, mine did and there was never a mention of a club, they just went in school library after school had finished.

Yep. Cheaper to buy another printer.

There are online companies that sell cheaper ink.
Our printer has the message "ink cartridge not recognised" but I just swipe off it and carry on, it works fine.

Our printer only accepts the HP Inks. Doesn't work at all with substitutes or refilling. A costly discovery.

Just had a nosey on Amazon - A canon pixma printer with full set of ink £28.10. Replacement inks £49.00. All those printers going to landfill...

We discovered that at work too. Astonishing waste.

Tricky. I think it's pretty standard to have access to a computer and printer/ink these days. I was a teenager 20 years ago and had this then. In that time, costs have fallen massively and you can get good deals on lots of packages. Ink is usually expensive if you get a cheap printer. Go for a better printer in the first place and the ink costs drop.

However, all that said, children can't be penalized for their parents not being able to afford equipment. If the school wants children to work on computers, they need to provide them. Once a week access to a computer lab and a huge shortage of resources is not good enough. I'd be tempted to contact the LA and make a huge fuss in your position, OP. It sounds to me as thought your child is being discriminated against on financial grounds.

What a sorry state of affairs all round. A school that just doesn't get it, a system that allows this to occur and a parent doing their best. If I was in the UK, I'd send you a computer myself. And the compatibility issue with tablets and so on is just a joke. If you're mandating that work is carried out online, you make damn sure it works on all devices. Whoever decided using packages that couldn't operate on half the systems available to the market these days needs stringing up!

Totally accept the school needs to meet you half way here. They need to improve their communication as they surely must have the ability to print out the work sheets etc. For those that need them, same with allowing emailing homework back when printers are not available . The way my dc report problems with school rules tend to be more black & white, when I speak to teachers directly they tend to be more 'grey' and flexible! Good luck - don't be fobbed off.

CEX is a good option for a second hand laptop, also find out if the homework sites are compatible with a Raspberry Pi as they are very cheap and should work with your TV screen and a cheap keyboard and mouse. But that's not the point!

I think you need to call the school and find out exactly what's going on as it could just be a certain teacher making threats because they just can't comprehend anyone not having a computer at home (like some posters here ) because they living in a bubble. Or teenagers miscommunicating things!

I've just bought a used laptop for dn for £30, so the argument that people can't afford a single 'family' computer at home is bollocks. I can understand re: printing.

Where did you get a lappy for £30 Fleur? I'm sure OP would be grateful to know.

Hope you get a good response from HoY NellysKnickers. I imagine as a new year 7 it's quite scary to try to get on a pc at school at lunchtime. I think my sons' secondary has different homework clubs for different age groups but it's a large school and has a lot of pcs.

Shoot me down, but do you have any techy neighbours with more than one pc you could use from time-time-time? I have a friend who has two laptops for the family but is not tech savvy (or interested, or well off) so when they break 1. my DH mends them and 2. the kids come here to do their homework. So maybe you could ask a local friend from time-to-time? I don't mean that the school policy is OK, but it can be a way round it.

It's not just cheap printers that have expensive inks. My printer isn't cheap, could be the same hp model already mentioned. Will not work with compatible or refills. But then the compatible ones are often false economy, as ironically my old printer would accept them, but was constantly replacing them.

Raspberry pi doesn't work with a lot of homework sites. They have very, very specific operating requirements.

Cheap tablets aren't that great either for homework. I have a fire, it's a tablet, great for reading books when not in the sun, great for games, silk not so great and terrible for typing essays. I also have another tablet, cost about £30 when it was released target audience was for students. Pile of rubbish. Galaxy tab mixed reviews, but the uni students I know who got them as bundles have gone back to laptops. So this brings you back to the Dell, hp and IPads couple of hundred quid and have limitations (as a school we was goi g down the tablet route. Tested tablets for over two years. Desktops and laptops replaced with desktops and laptops) then of course the higher end tablets aren't cheap and laptops suddenly become a better option.. this is of course if you have the cash.

Op might have smart phones and tablets. We don't know what they are (my ds had a £20 smart phone, great for calls and a few games). We don't know when they were purchased. Could be several years old when finances better - could be ill health, redundancy, zero hours contract households. They could have been gifts. Could have won them. Could have been a trial.. that's the thing we don't know. To say her and others in her situation should be priority is unhelpful.

Answer me this - you are a family of 4. After rent and council tax has been paid you have £100 to pay for gas, electric, food, clothing and shoes, travel to work/interviews/medical appointments/school, cleaning products, toiletries where is money to come from to buy a laptop, and to pay for internet? This people is the actual reality for some families out there.. and before the old get a job is trotted out, this is the household that is just over the cut off for fsm, or on zero hours, or unable to work because of illness.

OP this is where I got my DD's second hand one www.grabalaptop.com/windows-7-laptops/
I didn't have any problems - but they supposedly have a 6 month return to base guarantee. (DD has ADHD and can be very careless - it was really mistreated ...I don't think the screen would have gone if it hadn't been carried round the way it was -it used to make me grimace!)
They do refurbished Dell Latitudes - D series. These were premium business computers in their day. My old one - I've just put a new harddrive in for DCs from 2002 is a D505. It cost an absolute fortune new. The only problem I had with it was the hard drive failed once after 7 years and then after another 7 years and it was used a lot. So in my book that is fair enough...
I really only replaced it cos I use it for work (from home). I had it to the max spec (ram etc) but it has an old style harddrive so are very expensive and difficult to get larger than about 100GB -the refurb hard drive I got was £12 for 40GB. But just for homework that should be ample.

Soupdragon - I didn't read every post on the thread so was not aware that there were no PCs available- that's unusual that a school doesn't provide access to computers out of lessons especially as ICT and its effective use is an OFSTED criterium. Could the child do the HW - take a photo of it and email it in?

All the PCs in public areas at DD's school have disappeared. Apparently they were being misused.

I also meant to say that perhaps parents should be advised when they are looking at secondary schools that they should be looking at acquiring a laptop for homework.

They need to improve their communication as they surely must have the ability to print out the work sheets etc.

The OP is relying on her 11yr old DS to liaise with the school - in not sure their communication needs to be improved