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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To say schools should not charge for this?

106 replies

HelpIcantfindaname · 03/07/2023 19:43

Previously DDs (14) school have loaned all students laptops in years 10, 11 & 6th form because they are essential for lessons in school. They have been free...up to now.

Now parents have to pay what they call a 'low affordable' monthly rental fee.

This low affordable fee is £25 a month!!!! With £100 deposit!

How many families will be able to afford that? We can't. I've had to take ill health retirement & money is tight.

If this is an essential piece of equipment surely the school should provide them, like they have till now.

It's like telling the rest of the year groups they need to pay for their books . They are not allowed to take their own laptops in because of safety settings.

I know schools are struggling but so are families!

AIBU in thinking this is not going to be manageable for many families?

OP posts:
musicinspring1 · 03/07/2023 20:40

It is the norm for schools around here to have a scheme where parents have to sign up to a laptop agreement before they start and pay for a school approved device. Either outright or installments. But you then own it after it is paid. And this includes insurance/ software etc.
Rental at that price makes no sense at all.

IJustHadToLookHavingReadTheBook · 03/07/2023 20:46

Kennahevabescut · 03/07/2023 20:07

Challenge the school governing body. This sounds like a classic academy trust swizz.

Ask if the company providing these (overpriced) laptops is in any way related to, owned by, invested in etc, but the management of the academy trust.

This.

Very interested to hear if your child's school is part of an (evil) academy chain (or just a normal one even) @HelpIcantfindaname. This is textbook and I've seen several ACs do this over the past few years. They all backed down when governors were challenged on it (I do some work in education governance).

Irritateandunreasonable · 03/07/2023 20:46

I feel like the majority of people that are voting YBU can afford this.

As a single working Mother who is not eligible for free school meals (and therefore funding)because I earn over £7400 a year this is a HUGE cost for me.

It’s totally unacceptable to create a cost that is not optional and pile pressure to pay it. I haven’t paid for eldests iPad rental.

Also, he’s not even allowed what he wants on it! The school set all the controls and boundaries and want me to pay for it. It’s a no from me.

AxolotlOnions · 03/07/2023 20:46

I wouldn't pay this or allow my child to take an expensive piece of equipment into school unless the school was willing to cover it on their insurance. It's not necessary and it's clearly discriminatory.

Blankscreen · 03/07/2023 20:47

I can imagine that some students/families don't respect the kit given if it's 'free'. You only need to look at the state the text books used to be returned in to know that.

Sadly a few ruin it for the majority.

I would say the monthly admin fee is ridiculously high. If there are 1000 students that £25k a month. Some one somewhere will be making a lot of profit in this scheme.

I do though think a fairly high deposit is reasonable to ensure it is looked after properly.

Chameleons39 · 03/07/2023 20:48

A child in my child's class broke an iPad and a laptop so I'm not really surprised

ContractQuestion · 03/07/2023 20:53

Wow so surprised there's other schools making this compulsory too. Are they expected to lug a laptop around school to all their classes!?

Mine are managing fine at grammar having never taken a laptop into school...

EmeraldFox · 03/07/2023 20:53

difficultspaghetti · 03/07/2023 20:40

I didn't need a laptop for school at all and I only left in 2019. Covid is the reason that this is now considered essential. It is also the reason that many families financial situations have changed in the last 3 years. Be considerate of people's circumstances.

Show quote history

DS finished year 11 last year and didn't need anything at school either, state grammar. They had online quizzes and videos and so on for homework but these could be accessed on a tablet or PC shared with family.

Rockbird · 03/07/2023 20:56

We loan out chromebooks to our year 5 and 6s. It's a nightmare getting them back. We don't charge but I can see why schools do.

FcukTheDay · 03/07/2023 20:56

My DD school has a policy that they must have a school laptop, she is in Year 7. They aren't allowed to bring their own in either.

The option we had was to buy it from them outright or finance it from them where by while we are paying it off it is all covered by warranty. It's 14 pounds a month, we are in the South East and she attends a grammar.

ContractQuestion · 03/07/2023 21:05

Wow feel we've dodged a bullet in our souther grammar here! I haven't heard any of the local schools making this compulsory. I can't even see why?

It's just another piece of kit to get lost/broken etc and really not needed in class. We have a set of laptops they use for the odd research lesson but that's once in a blue moon.

Soubriquet · 03/07/2023 21:07

My kids would have to miss out cos no way could I afford that

FcukTheDay · 03/07/2023 21:17

To be fair, the only thing I will say is that it makes homework a lot easier as most of it is set on Google Classrooms. She can't lose or bring her homework home in tatters as she used to in primary.

She can be a clumsy!

YummyCookie · 03/07/2023 21:37

This sounds really expensive. DS' school had the choice of take their own, or pay £10 per month until the end of year 9. We then get to keep the laptop. We chose the second option as it covers insurance and tech support. £25 sounds crazy if you don't even get to keep it at the end.

Original poster
HelpIcantfindaname · 03/07/2023 21:38

Thanks for all the replies.

@SunnyFrost DD doesn't have her own laptop as she has a PC. But she can hardly carry that to school!

My husband works in IT & would be able to sort out a laptop for DD. I think the school will have to change the rule about using their own devices. I can't have been the only parent emailing to complain tonight.

Someone mentioned repairs...apparently the company running this gives the pupil a laptop to use while theirs is being repaired. The rental price includes insurance, but parents pay the excess.

DSS has just finished Year 11 at the same school. He's had a free laptop for 2 years, & used it in nearly every lesson, as well as for homework. (Although he also has a PC)

I understand it must cost schools a lot of laptops aren't returned. A deposit scheme would have been a good idea.

OP posts:
LiquoriceAllsorts2 · 03/07/2023 21:51

That’s £1200 for the 4 years, you could buy an amazing one for less than that so that does seem ridiculous that you can’t buy your own. Guess they are just charging the full cost plus insurance but does seem a lot.

ContractQuestion · 03/07/2023 21:52

What do they use it for in lessons?!

Surely they get bashed? Seems nuts to me. Yes to maths homework online at home if necessary etc. But lugging laptops around seems bizarre.

FcukTheDay · 03/07/2023 22:05

I will say there is downsides to it, in DDs school, if their laptop runs out of charge then they get there conduct card signed. It's another thing to carry with all their books and the fact we had to buy the very same laptop that she already has for four times the price as she wasn't allowed to bring her home one in.

I also get for people in this period of where everything is costing so much it's another thing to charge, the homework is only accessible on Google Classroom which means you must always have WiFi access. One of her friends often has to go to various friends to complete homework as sometimes her WiFi gets cut off when they can't afford it.

melj1213 · 03/07/2023 22:07

FcukTheDay · 03/07/2023 20:56

My DD school has a policy that they must have a school laptop, she is in Year 7. They aren't allowed to bring their own in either.

The option we had was to buy it from them outright or finance it from them where by while we are paying it off it is all covered by warranty. It's 14 pounds a month, we are in the South East and she attends a grammar.

My DDs school has the same - they all require a Google Chromebook at the start of Yr 7 as they use it in every class. They have their textbooks and any texts they're using in class on there as PDFs so they don't have to cart loads of heavy books around; they have access to all the school apps/homework portals etc that are preloaded ; they're all connected to the school intranet so they can access files etc as necessary and they are all the same so any maintenance/IT issues are resolved far easier than if they all had their own laptops with different specs/OS etc.

I have to admit that I much prefer DD having the Chromebook - she only has to remember that, her exercise books and pencil case - rather than lug round a backpack full of textbooks and folders full of worksheets etc. Especially as DD splits her time 50/50 between my house and her dad's there is less stuff for her to move each week and she doesn't have to worry about availability of a device to work from or transferring files between different devices, everything is on her Chromebook.

They all need the laptop from Yr 7 but the school give you two options - buy it outright from the school at the start of Yr 7 and then a one off £20 maintenance/insurance payment every subsequent school year; or pay it off in installments - they have two options one where you pay a slightly higher monthly fee but pay it off over a single year or a lower rate over two years, and the maintenance/insurance payment is included in that too. Whether you buy outright or in installments the school also provide a school logo'ed laptop sleeve to keep it protected in their school bags.

Pretty much every family knows about this before their child starts the secondary so nobody gets their child a laptop before that (most have tablets etc for games but laptops aren't needed in primary) as it is better value to just get the school one. Also, because we knew about the policy DDs dad and I put a little bit extra money away in savings every month when she was in Yr 6 so that we could buy the Chromebook outright when she started Yr 7, which I know some other parents did too.

I'm sure if there were parents who still couldn't afford the payments or they had multiple children at school at the same time which made it too expensive then the school would work with them to come up with another solution on an individual basis (eg I know the school has a couple of bursaries donated by previous pupils that are used to find things for students who are struggling but don't qualify for means tested benefits like FSMs etc)

Invisimamma · 03/07/2023 22:22

This is absolutely disgraceful, so many families won't be able to afford that. It also doesn't make economic sense as you could buy a laptop outright for less than the rental cost.

In Scotland every pupil P6 upwards is provided with a laptop or iPad (devices depend on LA area). There doesn't seem to be any issues with theft as they're controlled by the council IT department and can't be used for anything else. It also means all children have the same so teachers don't need to think about different software versions, compatibility etc.

www.gov.scot/news/devices-for-700-000-children/

Batalax · 03/07/2023 22:56

£10 a month then owning it outright, is a lot better than £25 rental only. If those schools can do it, the ops school can too. Push back op.

HateMyselfToo · 03/07/2023 23:44

My DD's primary school PTA used to fundraise to provide iPads for each school year a few years ago.
As times have moved on and laptops are expected at your school, could you organise an event to help your PTA fundraise to provide some?
Just think of the good you can do, as you won't be the only one that will be thinking this is expensive.

smilesup · 04/07/2023 07:10

WhatADrabCarpet · 03/07/2023 20:17

I'm agog at this thread.

Both of my children, who went to different schools, had to have laptops that we 'contributed' a nominal amount toward, every month for three years.

After that , we were invited to pay a nominal amount as a one off payment, and the laptop was free to the pupils , bar a yearly payment for IT support.

All the school portals could only be accessed via the school laptop and not by a home laptop or PC.
The yearly fee was for School updates, virus updates and firewall.

I'm agog that you don't understand many people cannot afford this.

Fandabedodgy · 04/07/2023 07:17

And yet in Scotland they are rolling out a free Chromebook for every secondary school child.

My son got his last term.

Talipesmum · 04/07/2023 07:21

Our secondary school doesn’t have laptops for the kids - they only use them in computing lessons and that’s in the IT suites. Plenty of homework online but that can be accessed in multiple ways.
So after £25/month you still are only renting it and don’t own it at any point? Seems massively expensive and unreasonable.